I 


/ 


NATURE   AND    MAN 
IN    AMERICA 


ims  AHGELES.  -:-  CAL. 


N.   S.   SHALER 

PHOFESSOE  OF   GEOLOOT    IN    HAKVARD    UNIVEKSITT 


NEW    YORK 

CHAELES   SCEIBNEE'S   SONS 

1891 


4  63 


Copyright,  1891,  By 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


pi     : 


G  F 
BO  \ 


INTRODUCTION. 


Modern  science  unhappily  appears  to  be  in  con- 
flict with  the  religious  traditions  of  our  race.  The 
development  of  our  knowledge  of  Nature  has  led  to 
a  loss  of  the  old  confidence  in  the  conditions  of 
human  life.  Our  fathers  rejoiced  in  the  conviction 
that  they  came  directly  from  the  Creator's  hands. 
It  is  now  evident  to  us  that  our  being  is  due  to  what 
we  term  more  natural  causes,  —  that  man's  body  has 
been  slowly  evolved  from  the  earth,  passing  onward 
through  inconceivable  stages,  each  leading  upward 
from  the  level  of  the  lowest  organic  life. 

Disguise  it  as  we  may,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  Science  has  taken  much  from  our  heritage  of 
ancient  ideals.  What  can  it  give  in  place  of  the  con- 
fidence which  it  has  destroyed  ?  Though  as  yet  the 
scientific  study  of  Nature  has  been  in  the  main  de- 
structive as  regards  the  ideal  foundations  of  our  life, 
it  is  my  belief  that  this  branch  of  learning  can  and 
will  give  a  great  deal  to  replace  that  which  it  has 
overthrown.  Half  a  century  ago.  Science  appeared 
as  the  destroyer  of  faith  and  trust  in  the  universe. 
It  seems  to  me  that  we  now  are  approaching  the  time 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

when  our  knowledge  will  reaffirm  the  old  belief  whicl 
our  fathers  had  in  the  essential  control  of  a  beneficent 
Providence.  With  each  advance  in  our  knowledge 
concerning  the  conditions  which  have  brought  men 
to  their  present  estate,  we  come  to  a  fuller  sense  as 
to  the  order  and  system  by  which  the  processes  of 
Nature  have  made  men  what  they  are.  There  is  rea- 
son to  hope  that  the  faith  of  our  children  may  be  hke 
unto  that  of  our  fathers,  —  better,  indeed,  than  the  old 
faith,  for  it  will  rest  on  the  firm  foundations  of  our 
own  knowledge,  rather  than  on  the  trust  in  the  opin- 
ions of  our  elders. 

It  seems  to  me  to  be  the  duty  of  every  naturalist, 
particularly  when  he  has  adopted  the  tasks  of  the 
teacher,  to  use  each  fit  occasion  to  show  wherein  he 
finds  proof  of  a  just  confidence  as  to  the  relations 
of  man  to  the  creative  power  which  works  in  Nature. 
By  so  doing,  he  may  ho|)e  to  help  himself  and  his  fel- 
low-students to  escape  from  the  perplexity  which  has 
been  brought  about  through  the  revolution  in  the 
opinions  of  men  which  modern  science  has  induced. 
With  this  end  in  view,  I  shall  devote  the  first  four 
chapters  of  this  book  to  a  general  statement  concern- 
ing the  effect  of  critical  conditions  of  the  earth  on  the 
development  of  organic  life  in  general.  It  will  be  my 
aim  to  show  that  geographic  changes  and  the  conse- 
quent revolutions  of  the  climate  which  our  earth  has 
undergone,  though  rude  and  in  a  way  destructive, 
have  nevertheless  served  the  best  uses  of  life,  driving 


INTRODUCTION.  vii 

organic  creatures  by  the  whips  of  necessity  upward 
and  onward  toward  the  higher  planes  of  being. 

I  shall  give  the  latter  half  of  this  essay  to  the 
discussion  of  geographic  influences  upon  man,  en- 
deavoring to  show,  at  least  in  a  general  way,  how 
the  development  of  race  peculiarities  has  been  in 
large  part  due  to  the  conditions  of  the  stage  on 
which  the  different  peoples  have  played  their  parts. 
I  shall  endeavor  to  trace  in  outline  the  effect  of 
the  geographic  conditions  on  the  development  of 
peoples  in  the  past,  and  to  make  a  somewhat  care- 
ful study  of  these  problems  as  they  are  exhibited 
in  North  America. 

Although  we  all  feel  an  interest  in  mankind  con- 
sidered as  a  whole,  we  particularly  desire  to  know, 
with  all  the  foresight  which  the  study  of  natural  laws 
may  afford,  the  fate  of  our  own  descendants  on  this 
earth  ;  and  because  to  each  of  us  our  land  is  the  dear- 
est, we  wish  above  all  to  foresee  the  future  of  the 
nation  to  which  we  give  our  best  hopes.  Therefore  I 
shall  endeavor  to  trace  the  probable  future  of  the 
social  and  economic  development  of  North  America  in 
a  somewhat  detailed  way,  endeavoring  in  the  sketch 
to  indicate  the  manner  in  which  the  geographic  fea- 
tures of  the  continent  have  controlled  the  settlement 
and  development  of  the  populations  up  to  the  present 
time,  and  the  probable  influence  of  those  conditions 
on  the  future  of  our  race. 

While  this  work  is  to  be  divided  into  two  parts,  — 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

one  concerning  the  influence  of  environment  on  or- 
ganic life,  and  the  other  concerning  the  conditions  of 
man  in  North  America,  —  the  subject  matter  is  really  a 
unit.  The  life  before  man  has  afforded  the  conditions 
of  his  being;  and  the  lower  kindred  in  animal  and  plant 
are  still  the  ministers  of  his  days,  mediators  between 
his  own  station  and  the  mineral  world  below.  When- 
ever we  seek  to  account  for  the  state  of  any  organic 
phenomena,  whether  it  be  such  as  are  exhibited  by  the 
lowest  animal  or  by  our  own  species,  it  is  necessary 
to  select  some  particular  part  of  the  creature's  condi- 
tions, and  for  the  time  to  devote  our  attention  solely 
to  the  problems  which  it  affords.  The  result  of  this 
method  of  study  is  necessarily  to  give  us  a  somewhat 
one-sided  view  of  the  matter.  In  all  divisions  of  the 
natural  field,  the  effects  of  many  causes  are  inex- 
tricably intermingled.  The  consideration  of  any  one 
of  them  can  give  us  only  a  limited  and  one-sided  as- 
pect of  its  true  nature.  Therefore,  in  reading  these 
pages  the  student  should  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that 
we  are  considering  only  one  of  the  many  series  of  in- 
jQuences  which  have  affected  the  life  of  man.  He  may 
also  advantageously  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the 
phenomena  of  inheritance  which  are  ever  contending 
against  the  immediate  influences  of  environment  are 
scantily  considered  in  the  following  pages.  They  are 
here  and  there  mentioned;  but  to  give  them  their  true 
weight  it  w^ould  be  necessary  greatly  to  increase  the 
size  of  the  book,  and  with  the  result  that  the  element 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

of  unity,  which  comes  with  the  consideration  of  a 
single  series  of  causes,  would  be  lost. 

Although  this  book  is  designed  in  part  for  the  use 
of  the  general  reader  who  wishes  to  obtain  some  slight 
idea  as  to  the  trend  of  that  modern  science  which 
takes  account  of  the  relation  of  organic  life  to  its  en- 
vironment, it  is  particularly  design-ed  for  the  use  of 
beginners  in  the  study  of  geology.  So  vast  is  the 
body  of  fact  in  the  records  of  our  earth-science  that  it 
is  hard  for  the  student  to  secure  any  general  concep- 
tions which  may  serve  to  guide  his  efforts  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  detailed  information.  Although  in  general, 
large  views  can  best  be  attained  by  those  who  have 
.already  acquired  a  great  store  of  detailed  knowledge, 
it  is  well  for  the  student  at  the  outset  to  obtain  some 
general  conception  as  to  the  direction  of  scientific 
inquiry.  With  such  suggestions,  he  can  make  good 
use  of  the  information  which  he  secures  from  text- 
books and  other  sources  of  knowledge  which  are  open 
to  him. 

It  should  be  said  that  the  greater  part  of  the  mat- 
ter contained  in  this  work  was  first  prepared  for  a 
course  of  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Bos- 
ton. The  last  four  chapters  were  printed  in  "  Scrib- 
ner's  Magazine,"  in  the  year  1890.  Considerable 
additions  to  the  text  have  been  made  during  its 
preparation  for  the  present  form  of  publication. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  Sept.  1891. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGE 

Ancient  View  as  to  the  Relation  of  Man  to  the  Earth.  —  Effect  of 
Study  of  Paleontology.  —  Work  of  Cuvier;  of  Agassiz.  —  Animals 
and  Plants  of  North  America.  —  Relative  Advance  of  Life  on  the 
several  Continents.  —  Comparison  of  Organic  Life  of  Europe  with 
that  of  other  great  Lands.  — Effect  of  Geographic  Changes.— 
Comparison  of  Asiatic  and  Australian  Life.  —Effect  of  Mountain 
Barriers;  of  Migrations  of  Men.  —  Geographic  Influences  of  Cape 
Cod;  of  the  Gulf  Stream.  —  Probable  Effect  of  opening  depressed 
Areas  of  the  Sahara  to  the  Sea.  —  Comparison  of  Mountains  and 
Plains.  —  Effects  of  difficult  Conditions  on  Advance  of  Life.— 
Comparison  of  Tropical  and  Polar  Conditions 1 


CHAPTER   11. 

Nature  and  Origin  of  Continents.  — Effect  of  Continents  on  Seas.— 
Literaction  of  Sea  and  Land.  —  Salinity  of  Ocean  and  Dead  Seas. 

—  Transportation  of  Material  from  Land  to  Sea.  —  Eft'ect  of  Vol- 
canoes.—Possible  Effect  arising  from  Destruction  of  Continents. 

—  Effect  of  Sea  and  Land  on  Organic  Life  ;  Conditions  of  Passage 
of  Life  from  Sea  to  Land.  —  Brief  Statement  as  to  Development  of 
Life.  —  Eff"ect  of  Mountain  Growth ;  Absence  of  such  Structures 
on  the  Sea  Floor.  —  Relations  of  Mountains  to  Continental  Growth. 

—  Effect  of  Mountains  on  North  America.  — Movements  of  Sub- 
terranean Materials  in  the  Process  of  Mountain-Building  ....      32 


CHAPTER  in. 

Permanence  of  Continents  ;  Evidence  that  their  Areas  have  been  Sea 
Floors.  —Evidence  of  slow  Growth  of  Mountains.  —  Proof  that  the 
Continents  are  ancient.  —  Evidence  from  Organic  Life  ;  from  the 
Physical  Structure  of  Sediments.  — Devonian  Black  Shale,  -t Con- 
tinental  Shelf;   Conditions  of  its  Formation. —Progressive  Ad- 


XU  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

vance  in  Development  of  the  Continent  from  Cambrian  Time  to 
the  present  Day.  —  Successive  Positions  of  Shore-line.  —  Varia- 
tions in  the  Form  of  Continent ;  Subsidence  during  Glacial  Period 
in  Northern  Portion ;  corresponding  Uplift  in  Southern  Portion. 
—  Evidence  from  the  West  Indies  Islands  ;  from  Florida  Rocks-  — 
Summary 66 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Nature  of  Faunae  and  Florae.  —  Migration  of  these  Organic 
Armies. — Individualization  of  Continents.  —  Condition  of  Faunae 
and  FloYse  in  Cambrian  Time ;  in  Successive  Periods. — Effect  of 
Growth  of  Mountains;  Effect  of  Elevation  at  Beginning  of  Coal- 
measures.  —  Croll's  Hypothesis  of  Climate  Change.  —  Conditions 
of  Continental  Growth  in  Europe. — Influence  of  Geographic  Con- 
ditions on  the  Development  of  Life.  —  Conditions  of  last  Glacial 
Period.  —  Relation  of  Continents  to  Marine  Currents.  —  Uniform 
Growth  of  the  Earth's  Features.  — Uniformity  in  Condition  of 
Atmosphere.  —  Climatal  Variations  ;  Delicacy  of  Adjustment 
thereof;  its  Measure. — Effect  of  Variations  of  Gulf  Stream  on 
Extension  of  Ice.  —  Review  and  Conclusion 108 


CHAPTER  V. 

Dependence  of  Man  on  Environment;  Increase  of  this  Dependence 
with  the  Advance  of  Civilization.  —  Relations  of  our  modern 
States  to  the  Conditions  of  the  Earth.  —  Advance  in  the  Sj-mpa- 
thetic  Motive.  —  Comparison  of  Europe  and  North  America.  — 
Discussion  of  the  separate  Areas  of  Europe.  —  Isolation  of  Great 
Britain ;  its  Causes.  —  Isolated  Areas  of  Asia.  —  Cradle-land  of 
the  Arj'an  People.  —  Permanence  of  Race  Qualities.  —  Race  Quali- 
ties in  Africa ;  in  Australia ;  in  America.  —  Geographic  Conditions 
of  North  America ;  Review  of  the  several  Fields  of  this  Conti- 
nent.—  Effect  of  Physical  Conditions  of  North  America  on  native 
Indians 147 


CmVPTER   VI. 

Geographic  Relations  of  North  America;  Variations  of  these  Rela- 
tions in  former  Geologic  Periods.  —  Peculiar  Fitness  of  North 
America  for  the  Nurture  of  Plant  Life;  Inferior  Position  of  its 
Animals.  —  Contributions  of  North  America  to  the  Domesticated 
Animals  and  Plants  of  Civilization.  —  Relative  Measure  of  Relation 


k/ 


l\ 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

(^,^^  PAGE 

of  North  America  with  Europe  and  with  Asia.  —  Origin  of  North 
American  Indians.  —  Conditions  of  first  Settlement  by  Man.— 
Condition  of  Americtin  Indians  Avhen  the  Country  was  first  settled 
by  the  Whites.— Effect  of  the  Buffalo  on  the  Habits  of  Indians; 
Region  of  Prairies.  —  Settlement  of  America  by  Europeans;  Con- 
ditions which  led  thereto.  —  Scandinavian,  Spanish,  French,  and 
English  Settlements.  —  Importance  of  Geographic  Features  in  de- 
termining Success  of  the  various  Colonies;  Effect  of  the  Appala- 
chian Barrier.  —  Influence  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi 
Kivers.  —  Influence  of  the  Tobacco  Plant.  —  Settlement  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley ;  Effect  of  the  Geographic  Conditions  therein     .    .    174 


.^j   :  CHAPTER  VII. 

Effect  of  the  Appalachian  Mountain  System  on  the  Distribution  of 
'^  Slaver}'.  —  Influence  of  the  Prairies  ;  Rapidity  and  Ease  with  which 
they  are  won  to  Tillage.  —  Effect  of  Invention  of  Agriculture. — 
Original  Division  of  North  America. —Atlantic  Coast  ;  its  Agri- 
cultural Capacity.  — Mississippi  Valley  and  Pacific  Arable  Land.  — 
Effect  of  Modern  Economies  in  producing  local  Peculiarities  of  So- 
ciety. —  Lack  of  Geographic  Variety  in  North  America.  —  Three 
Marine  Regions  of  this  Continent.  —  Details  of  the  New  England 
District ;  Surface  Tillable  Soils ;  Variety  of  Occupations.  —  New 
York  District ;  Comparison  of  its  Resources  with  those  of  New 
England.  —  Virginia  District.  —  Absence  of  Glacial  Erosion;  In- 
fluence of  Blue  Ridge  ;  Character  of  Plain  Country;  Condition  of 
Population.  —  Effect  of  Diverse  Climates  on  the  Negroes.  —  Florida 
Peninsula;  its  Soils;  Shore-Line  Fisheries;  probable  Future  of  the 
District.  —  Mexican  Gulf  Group  of  States;  Region  of  the  Low- 
lands; Climate;  Mineral  Resources;  probable  Increase  of  Negro 
Population. —  Ohio  Group  of  States;  Climate;  Soil;  Contrasts  in 
Fertility;  Effect  of  these  Contrasts  on  the  People;  Influence  on  the 
Civil  War.  —  District  of  the  Great  Lakes  ;  Peculiarities  of  the  Re- 
gion ;  Climate ;  Variety  of  Mineral  Resources 208 


CHAPTER  Vni. 

Section  of  North  America  west  of  the  Mississippi.  —  Division  into 
Sections  as  determined  by  Rainfall.  —  Aridity  of  the  District; 
probable  Future.  —  Central  District  of  Canada.  —  Region  of  the 
Red  River;  Condition  of  Climate;  Fitness  for  the  Use  of  European 
Settlers.  —  Rocky  Mountain  District ;  Effect  of  Cordilleran  Barrier. 
—  Condition  of  Cordilleran  District  in  northern  Mexico;  within  the 
United  States;  Form  of  the  Mountains;   Recent  Change  in  the 


Xiv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

liaiiifall;  Character  of  Soil;  Variation  in  Climate.—  Mining  In- 
dustry of  Cordilleran  District;  Variet}^  of  Resources;  Fitness  of 
Region  for  Aryan  Race. — Pacific  Coast  District;  Division  into 
Three  Areas.  —  Section  of  southern  California.  — Relation  of  Min- 
ing and  Tillage  Fields.  —  District  of  Oregon;  Mineral  Resources; 
Soil;  Climate;  Fitness  for  Arj'an  Race.  —  Alaskan  District. — 
Effect  of  American  Conditions  on  the  Life  of  Europeans ;  on  Afri- 
cans.— Evidence  of  Longevity  of  Europeans;  from  Surgery;  from 
Field  Sports;  from  Measurements.  —Endurance  of  Soldiers  in  Civil 
"War.  —  Effect  of  American  Climate  on  Negroes.  —  Conclusion  .     .    250 


INDEX 285 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Ancient  View  as  to  the  Relation  of  Man  to  the  Earth.  — Effect  of  Study  of 
Paleontology.  —  Woric  of  Ciivier;  of  Agassiz.  —  Animals  and  Plants  of 
North  America.  —  Relative  Advance  of  Life  on  the  several  Continents. 

—  Comparison  of  Organic  Life  of  Europe  with  that  of  other  great 
Lands.  —  Effect  of  Geographic  Changes.  —  Comparison  of  Asiatic  and 
Australian  Life. — Effect  of  Mountain  Barriers;  of  Migrations  of  Men. 

—  Geographic  Influences  of  Cape  Cod,  of  the  Gulf  Stream.  —  Probable 
Effect  of  opening  depressed  Areas  of  the  Sahara  to  the  Sea.  —  Comparison 
of  Mountains  and  Plains.  —  Effects  of  difficult  Conditions  on  Advance  of 
Life.  —  Comparison  of  Tropical  and  Polar  Conditions. 

Our  forefathers  looked  upon  the  earth  as  an  inert 
mass,  upon  which  life  had  been  imposed  by  the  will 
of  a  superior  being.  To  them  the  earth  was  essen- 
tially lifeless ;  here  and  there  portions  of  its  matter 
sprang  into  a  plane  of  higher  existence,  in  animal  or 
plant,  to  fall  back  after  a  brief  time  into  the  inert 
soil.  Now  and  then  a  philosopher  attained  to  a 
deeper  sense  of  the  relations  between  the  living  and 
the  dead  parts  of  the  earth.  Thus  Pythagoras  and  his 
school  conceived  that  the  fossils  of  the  rocks  repre- 
sented a  certain  striving  of  the  earthy  matter  to 
liecome  living.  They  thus  recognized  the  essential 
vitality  of  the  earth;  they  supposed  the  particles  of 


2  NATURE  AjST)   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

matter  to  be  spontaneously  seeking  a  higher  state  of 
organism.  But  the  conception  of  the  earth  as  inert 
held  in  the  minds  of  naturalists  even  down  to  our  own 
generation.  Only  in  the  divine  Kepler  do  we  find 
a  philosopher  strong  enough  to  conceive  this  sphere 
as  essentially  organized.  To  him  this  world  is  so 
endowed  with  activities  that  it  is  to  be  accounted 
alive.  In  his  reflections  on  the  order  of  Nature,  he 
holds  to  the  doctrine  that  the  earth  is  animated  in 
the  fashion  of  an  animal ;  he  finds  in  the  tides  an 
evidence  of  its  slow  breathing. 

Critics  have  found  in  this  fancy  of  Kepler  proof 
of  a  disordered  mind,  of  an  imagination  which  outran 
the  limits  of  scientific  inquiry ;  but  though  there  is 
an  element  of  ideality  or  even  of  wild  fancy  in  his 
speculations  as  to  the  nature  of  the  earth,  it  seems 
likely  that  his  divining  imagination  brought  him 
clearer  to  the  truth  than  the  hard-mindedness  of 
other  naturalists. 

In  this  and  the  following  chapters  I  propose  in 
outline  to  trace,  as  far  as  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  will  permit,  the  connection  between  the 
functions  of  our  planet  and  the  development  of  or- 
ganic life  upon  it.  I  hope  to  show  that  the  appar- 
ently rude  and  massive  machinery  of  our  earth  has 
so  operated  during  great  periods  of  geologic  time  as 
to  nurse  and  develop  the  organic  life  which  inhabits 
its  surface.  Under  my  subject,  I  propose  to  include 
the  evident  natural  forces  which  can  have  an  influ 
ence  on  organic  beings,  the  features  in  our  earth's 


NATUEE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  3 

history  which  determine  the  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate ;  in  a  word,  those  complicated  influences  to 
which  we  give  the  name  of  Environment. 

In  seeking  to  find  our  way  to  an  understanding  of 
the  relations  between  the  earth  and  its  living  inhabi- 
tants, we  must  first  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  we 
are  fighting  against  an  ancient  prejudice.  Almost 
instinctively  we  look  upon  the  living  being  as  some- 
thing essentially  foreign  to  the  earth  upon  which  it 
is  set;  the  ever  present  fact  of  death,  the  return  of 
the  individual  to  the  dust,  accents  this  relation 
which  ancestral  habits  of  thought  have  fixed  in  our 
understanding.  As  the  first  step  toward  this  larger 
view  of  Nature,  I  propose  to  consider  the  stages  of  an 
inquiry  which  led  me  many  years  ago  to  combat  in 
my  lectures  to  students  the  prejudice  which  I  seek 
to  do  away  with.  Although  the  problem  is  one  of 
many  details  and  required  some  years  for  its  solu- 
tion, it  can  be  readily  apprehended,  for  the  reason 
that  it  involves  only  simple  considerations. 

When  naturalists  began  to  study  the  fossils  buried 
in  the  rocks  of  the  earth's  crust,  they  soon  learned 
that  while  the  newer  deposits  contained  forms  which 
were  closely  akin  to  those  now  dwelling  on  the  earth, 
the  more  ancient  strata  held  the  remains  of  animals 
and  plants  essentially  different  from  those  now  liv- 
ing. As  long  ago  as  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Dr.  Robert  Hooke  suggested  that  it  might 
be  possible  to  determine  the  relative  age  of  strata 


4  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

in  different  regions  by  the  consideration  of  these  or- 
ganic remains,  or,  as  he  expressed  it,  "we  might 
raise  a  chronology  from  the  study  of  these  medals  of 
creation."  It  was  not,  however,  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  or  one  hundred  years 
after  Hooke's  prophetic  conjecture,  that  this  chrono- 
logical study  of  the  rocks  through  their  fossils  was 
actually  begun.  The  first  steps  in  this  great  work  of 
unravelling  the  earth's  past  history  were  taken  by 
the   illustrious  Cuvier. 

Cuvier  and  his  immediate  followers  conceived  that 
the  ancient  sedimentary  deposits  each  contained  as- 
semblages of  fossils  which  were  alike  in  all  the  rocks 
of  a  given  age.  They  supposed  that  the  fossils  of 
the  Trias  or  of  the  Miocene  which  were  found  in 
England  or  in  France  would  likewise  be  found  in  de- 
posits of  that  age  in  every  part  of  the  world  whatso- 
ever. Gradually,  however,  as  our  knowledge  of  the 
animals  and  plants  now  living  became  more  complete, 
it  was  perceived  that  the  present  life  of  the  planet 
is  divided  into  limited  realms,  — faunae  and  florae, 
as  naturalists  term  them.  Thus,  to  take  the  most 
conspicuous  instance,  the  living  animals  and  plants 
of  Australia  differ  surprisingly  from  those  of  any 
other  continent,  there  being  but  few  of  the  thousand 
indigenous  species  of  that  island  continent  which  are 
represented  by  kindred  forms  in  other  lands.  So  it 
came  first  to  be  conjectured,  and  afterward  to  be 
proved,  that  the  life  of  the  past  had  a  regional  divi- 
sion somewhat  like  that  which  we  find  to  exist  at  the 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  5 

present  time.  Slowly  geologists  came  to  see  that 
they  could  not  expect  the  Miocene  of  Europe  or  the 
Trias  of  that  country  to  contain  just  the  same  forms 
which  characterize  those  beds  in  the  other  continents. 

The  next  step  in  the  development  of  this  idea  was 
taken  by  my  master,  Louis  Agassiz.  Although  the 
elder  Agassiz  is  best  known  as  a  zoologist  and  geolo- 
gist, he  had  a  considerable  acquaintance  with  botany, 
which  he  mainly  derived  from  his  association  as  a 
student  with  the  distinguished  Dr.  Braun,  after- 
ward professor  of  botany  at  Berlin.  Agassiz's  wide- 
ranging  geological  studies  brought  him  at  an  early 
age  in  contact  with  the  deposits  of  the  Miocene  ter- 
tiary in  Switzerland.  These  beds  contain  an  amaz- 
ing number  of  fossil  leaves,  shed  in  the  autumns  of 
former  ages,  and  buried  in  ancient  lake-beds  of 
Switzerland.  The  perfection  of  these  fossils  is  sin- 
gular. They  are  often  so  well  preserved  that  we 
miss  nothing  but  the  hue  which  characterized  them 
when  they  fell. 

When  Agassiz  came  to  America  in  1846,  his  ob- 
servant eye  noticed  the  fact  that  while  our  American 
forests  were  singularly  unlike  those  now  existing  in 
Europe,  they  were  very  closely  related  to  the  woods 
which  had  covered  central  parts  of  that  continent  in 
the  Miocene  time.  At  present  the  forests  of  Europe 
contain  a  small  number  of  species  of  trees  compared 
with  those  of  North  America.  Thus,  while  in  North 
America  we  have  about  thirty-five  species  of  oaks,  in 
Europe   there   are   not    more   than  four   indigenous 


6  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

species  of  that  group.  Moreover,  in  North  America 
there  are  many  forms,  such  as  our  sassafrases,  sweet 
gums,  sour  gums,  tulip-trees,  magnolias,  bald  cy- 
presses, etc.,  which  are  no  longer  found  in  European 
woods.  Agassi z  noted  the  fact  that  the  greater  part 
of  these  genera  which  are  now  peculiar  to  North 
America  were  in  Miocene  day  characteristic  of 
Europe.  In  other  words,  the  forests  of  the  European 
field  were  once  like  those  of  North  America ;  but  the 
Old  World  has  passed  by  that  stage  in  its  arboreal 
development.  Little  survives  of  that  period  in  its 
history  save  the  fossils  in  the  rocks. 

Agassiz  went  further  with  his  inquiry.  He  found 
that  a  good  many  animals  now  living  in  North 
America,  such  as  our  opossums,  many  of  our  fishes, 
and  some  of  our  reptilian  group,  also  survived  in 
North  America,  though  they  had  vanished  from  the 
Old  World.  This  series  of  facts  remained  a  subject 
of  recurrent  inquiry  with  Agassiz;  and  in  1860  he 
called  my  attention  to  the  matter,  and  bade  me  make 
a  further  study  as  to  their  meaning. 

Following  the  lead  which  my  master  gave  me,  I 
proceeded  to  make  tables,  which  would  set  forth  these 
peculiar  differences  in  the  rate  of  advance  of  North 
America  and  Europe,  and  to  extend  the  tabulation 
to  the  other  continents.  From  the  data  thus  gath- 
ered, it  soon  became  evident  that  this  peculiarity  was 
not  limited  to  Europe  and  North  America,  but  that 
the  stage  of  advance  of  life  differed  for  each  conti- 
nent.    Taking  European  life  for  our  standard,   and 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN   AMERICA.  7 

inquiring  into  the  conditions  of  organic  develop- 
ment on  the  other  continents,  it  becomes  evident  that 
Europe  had  gone  farther  forward  in  its  organic  his- 
tory than  any  other  land.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  Asia, 
we  find  there  now  living  many  genera  of  plants  and 
animals  the  species  of  which  had  formerly  existed 
in  Europe,  but  had  disappeared  from  that  land.  Ele- 
phants, tigers,  and  many  other  animals,  abundant  in 
Europe  in  the  later  Tertiary,  but  no  longer  present, 
still  abound  in  Asia.  Africa  has  yet  more  archaic 
assemblages  of  animals  and  plants;  that  is  to  say, 
on  the  African  continent  there  are  more  forms  the 
kindred  of  which  once  existed  in  Europe,  but  have 
passed  away.  Pursuing  the  results  of  our  series,  we 
"find  that  the  organic  life  of  South  America  is  lower 
in  grade  than  that  of  the  continents  before  men- 
tioned; while  Australia  is  last  of  all  in  the  measure 
of  elevation  of  its  life.  In  a  very  general  way,  we 
may  say  that  the  life"  of  North  America  has  lagged 
behind/that  of  Europe  by  something  like  the  amount 
of  one  geological  period;  Asia  is  behind  by  about 
the  same  term ;  Africa  is  yet  farther  behind  in  the 
race;  and  finally,  Australia  has  an  assemblage  of 
animals  which  remind  us  more  closely  of  Europe  iji 
the  Jurassic  time  than  Europe  of  to-day.  We  cannot 
take  up  the  organic  species  of  the  continents  -in 
detail,  but  we  may  note  the  fact  that  the  native 
mammals  or  suck-giving  animals  of  Australia  all  be- 
long to  the  group  ot  Marsupials  or  pouch-bearers,  — 
forms  which  in  Europe  appear  to  have  passed  away, 


8  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

or  at  least  to  have  lost  their  importance  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Cretaceous  period. 

When  we  come  to  tabulate  the  facts,  we  find  that 
the  other  continents  are  characterized  by  a  rate  of 
advance  in  their  organic  life  which  puts  them  in  the 
following  series :  Europe  at  the  head  of  the  great 
procession;  next  following  and  in  nearly  equal  ad- 
vance the  continents  of  Asia  and  North  America; 
farther  in  the  rear  comes  Africa ;  South  America  is 
yet  farther  behind;  and  far  behind  the  others,  the 
laggard  among  all  the  lands,  the  slow-going  conti- 
nent of  Australia. 

If  the  general  facts  indicated  in  these  considera- 
tions came  to  us  through  observations  made  upon 
any  single  group  of  animals  or  plants,  it  would  have 
little  interest,  for  it  might  be  supposed  to  fall  into 
the  field  of  the  inexplicable  or  at  least  unexplained 
things,  the  realm  we  term  Chance ;  but  the  statement 
as  to  the  relative  advance  of  the  life  on  the  several 
continents  is  true  for  a  great  many  separate  groups. 
In  a  general  way,  it  is  true  of  plants,  of  mollusca 
reptiles,  of  fishes,  and  of  mammals.  The  coincidence 
in  the  rate  of  development  of  these  distinct  groups 
of  beings  was  sufficient  to  make  me  hopeful  of  find- 
ing some  clew  to  the  cause  of  the  perplexing  facts. 

It  is  the  habit  of  naturalists  to  avoid  prolixity  by 
giving  their  readers  only  the  results  of  their  inqui- 
ries, leaving  out  of  consideration  the  steps  by  which 
they  attained  their  successes  or  failures  in  the  work 
of  research.     It  seems  to  me,  however,  worth  while 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  9 

to  set  forth  the  method  which  I  found  myself  driven 
to  pursue  in  my  effort  to  get  some  further  account 
as  to  the  causes  which  led  to  these  peculiar  condi- 
tions in  the  distribution  of  organic  beings. 

When  a  naturalist  has  attained  the  state  of  in- 
quiry to  which  we  have  now  come  in  the  statement  of 
our  problem,  he  needs  to  beat  the  brush  of  fact  and 
fancy  in  order  to  get  a  clew  for  further  search.  If 
he  has  been  well  taught  or  has  profited  by  individual 
experience,  his  next  step  will  be  to  search  in  the 
realm  of  Nature  for  some  series  of  facts  which  are  in 
any  way  coincident  with  those  which  he  seeks  to  ex- 
plain. It  is  evident  at  the  outset  of  this  particular 
inquiry  after  new  series  of  facts  to  be  used  in  com- 
parison with  those  in  hand,  that  this  difference  in  the 
rate  of  development  of  life  on  different  continents 
may  be  in  some  way  connected  with  the  physical 
history  of  the  continental  masses  themselves.  Now, 
the  only  way  to  take  up  the  physical  history  of  con- 
tinents, since  we  know  that  history  as  yet  most  im- 
perfectly, is  to  make  a  study  of  their  existing  shapes. 
The  geologist  already  knows  full  well  that  the  actual 
shape  of  the  continental  form  has  been  determined 
by  the  experiences  of  that  land-mass  in  the  past. 
The  land  is  what  it  is  because  of  the  various  shape- 
giving  influences  which  have  worked  upon  it.  With 
this  general  thought  in  mind,  we  may  proceed  to 
the  next  step  of  the  inquiry. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  grasp  the  form  of  a 
continent  in  its  entirety.     It  is  true  that  every  hill 


10  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

and  valley,  every  outline  of  surface,  however  trifling, 
indicates  some  part  of  the  history  of  that  land ;  but 
the  mass  of  fact  is  so  great  that  it  is  beyond  the 
compass  of  the  mind  to  grasp  it  firmly.  We  must 
therefore  find,  if  possible,  some  simple  index  of  the 
continental  form,  sufficiently  clear  and  general  in  its 
nature  to  be  taken  into  the  understanding.  This  in- 
dex, as  we  shall  shortly  see,  lies  ready  for  us  in  the 
simple,  readily  recognizable  feature,  —  the  shore-line. 
Long  ago  Ritter  and  afterward  Guyot  recognized 
the  fact  that  the  amount  of  shore -line  of  the  several 
continents  in  proportion  to  their  internal  square-mile 
area  varies  greatly,  as  is  shown  by  the  proportionate 
area  of  the  peninsulated  appendages  to  the  solid  mass 
of  the  lands  with  which  they  are  united;  this  is 
in  Europe  one  to  four,  in  Asia  one  to  six,  in  North 
America  one  to  fourteen.  The  other  continents  have 
so  few  peninsulas  that  no  definite  ratios  can  be  es- 
tablished. Europe  has  by  far  the  largest  amount 
of  shore  in  proportion  to  its  square-mile  area  of 
any  of  the  continents ;  Asia  and  North  America  have 
much  less  shore-line  for  their  square-mile  surface; 
Africa  yet  less ;  while  South  America  and  Australia 
come  still  lower  in  the  scale.  To  establish  these 
ratios  in  the  form  in  which  I  have  presented  them, 
it  is  desirable  to  reduce  the  continents  to  the  same 
areas,  and  then  to  compare  their  shore- lines. 

No  sooner  do  we  grade  the  continents  by  the  pro- 
portion of  shore-line  to  square  mile  of  surface,  and 
place  this  tabulation  against  that  which  shows  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  11 

series  in  organic  development,  than  we  are  startled 
to  find  that  in  a  general  way  at  least  the  two  sets  of 
facts  correspond.  Although  the  parallelism  is  by 
no  means  perfect,  it  is  sufficient  to  give  the  natural- 
ist the  clew  which  he  seeks  to  obtain. 

It  requires  little  consideration  to  show  us  that 
there  can  be  no  immediate  connection  between  the 
development  of  the  organic  life  and  the  ratio  of  the 
sea-coast  to  the  square-mile  area  in  the  several 
lands.  We  must  expect  to  find  the  causation  more 
remote.  We  should  look  for  some  conditions  which 
will  at  once  give  the  complicated  shore-line  and 
the  environment  which  advances  life.  Let  us  begin 
our  inquiry  by  determining  what  it  is  that  makes 
the  variation  in  the  shore-line. 

Taking  first  the  continent  of  Europe,  let  us  see 
what  it  is  that  produces  this  singularly  large  inter- 
locking of  sea  and  land.  Almost  as  soon  as  we  in- 
spect a  good  map  of  that  part  of  the  world,  it  becomes 
apparent  that  this  complicated  periphery  is  due  to 
the  great  development  of  mountains  having  diverse 
directions  of  axial  development  on  that  continent. 
Europe  is  an  aggregation  of  peninsulas  and  islands, 
each  the  product  of  a  more  or  less  distinct  system  of 
mountain-building.  The  Scandinavian  peninsulas, 
Great  Britain,  Ireland,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Greece,  as 
well  as  many  lesser  peninsulas,  are  each  the  product 
of  a  separate  incidence  of  mountain-building  forces, 
applied  at  different  periods  in  geological  time.  We 
thus  come  at  once  upon  a  set  of  facts  which  leads  us 


12  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

carefull}^  to  inspect  the  operations  of  mountain-build- 
ing forces  on  the  several  continents. 

Although  our  information  concerning  the  measure 
of  action  of  orogenic  or  mountain-building  forces  on 
the  several  continents  is  yet  imperfect,  we  know 
enough  to  be  able  to  grade  the  continents  in  a  gen- 
eral way  in  accordance  with  the  relative  number  of 
their  mountain  systems,  and  are  quickly  brought  to 
the  conclusion  that  Europe  has  the  most  shore-line  in 
proportion  to  its  area  because  it  has  been  the  seat  of 
more  repeated  and  more  varied  mountain-building 
than  any  other  continent,  and  that  the  relative  lack  of 
shore-line  on  the  other  lands  is  due  to  a  proportionate 
lessening  in  the  variety  of  movements  due  to  those 
subterranean  forces  which  fold  the  rocks.  Thus,  if 
we  compare  Europe  with  North  America,  we  find  that 
in  the  first  named  of  these  continents  there  are  more 
than  a  score  of  different  mountain  systems,  the  eleva- 
tion of  which  occurred  in  most  cases  at  different  times 
in  the  earth's  history;  while  in  Xorth  America  there 
are  not  more  than  half-a-dozen  different  systems, 
representing  perhaps  no  more  than  that  number  of 
diverse  periods  of  disturbance  which  built  such  ele- 
vations. We  have  now  come  in  our  inquiry  to  a 
point  where  we  may  fairly  conjecture  that  the  rela- 
tive advance  of  life  on  the  different  continents  may 
in  some  way  have  depended  upon  influences  due 
either  to  the  processes  of  mountain-building  or  to 
the  long  continued  existence  of  such  elevations  on 
the  several  lands.     We  shall  therefore  proceed   to 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  13 

consider  the  way  in  which  mountains  by  their  growth 
or  presence  in  any  region  may  affect  the  advance  of 
organic  life. 

Before  we  set  about  this,  —  the  most  critical  and, 
as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  the  most  profitable  part  of 
our  inquiry,  —  we  must  take  a  glance  at  the  condi- 
tions of  animals  and  plants  as  they  are  affected  by 
geographic  changes,  such  as  are  induced  by  mountain 
growth.  This  inquiry  was  not  possible  in  the  time 
of  Louis  Agassiz,  or  with  students  who  held  to  the 
belief  as  to  the  nature  of  organic  changes  which  he 
entertained.  He  believed  that  each  species  of  animal 
and  plant  was  the  product  of  direct  creative  action. 
Mr.  Darwin  and  Mr.  Wallace  have  forced  us  to  ad- 
mit that  the  development  of  new  species  is,  to  a  great 
extent,  due  to  circumstances,  to  the  action  of  the  in- 
organic conditions  upon  them  or  the  interaction  of 
•species  with  species  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Geographic  conditions  may  greatly  affect  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  in  most  important  ways;  as,  for 
instance,  when  the  sea  advances  or  retreats,  the  as- 
semblages of  marine  and  land  creatures,  the  fauna3 
and  florae  of  the  neighboring  waters  and  lands,  move 
to  and  fro,  with  the  change  of  their  domains.  Such 
migrations  lead  to  the  death  of  weak  species,  brought 
about  by  a  struggle  for  existence  with  forms  with 
which  they  have  not  previously  come  into  contention. 
Such  times  of  migration  are  necessarily  periods  when 
rapid  selective  changes  occur. 

A  sufficient  example  of  such  a  movement  and  its 


14  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

consequences  may  be  brought  to  our  minds  by  an  in- 
stance taken  from  the  shore  of  Massachusetts.  The 
peninsula  of  Cape  Cod,  a  frail  barrier  of  glacial 
waste,  parts  on  the  north  and  south  two  very  diverse 
groups  of  marine  animals.  There  are  some  scores 
of  species  inhabiting  Cape  Cod  Bay  to  the  north  of 
the  barrier  which  are  not  found  in  the  waters  about 
Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket  or  in  Buzzard's 
Bay.  When  Cape  Cod  disappears,  —  as  but  for  the 
intervention  of  man  it  will,  by  marine  erosion,  in  a 
few  thousand  years  disappear,  —  we  foresee  that  a 
great  intermigration  of  these  species  will  take  place. 
They  will  struggle  with  one  another  for  the  possession 
of  the  new  field  of  sea-shore  and  of  the  waters.  The 
weaker  or  less  perfect  forms  will  be  destroyed,  ana 
out  of  the  struggle  will  come  a  measure  of  advance 
in  the  character  of  the  life  in  the  given  area.  Or  let 
us  take  another  instance  from  far  away.  Between 
the  low-grade  life  of  Australia  and  the  higher  life 
of  southern  Asia,  there  are  but  narrow  barriers  of 
waters.  A  relatively  trifling  geographic  change 
might  at  any  time  convert  the  Malayan  archipelago) 
into  a  great  isthmus,  binding  the  two  continents  to- 
gether and  affording  a  bridge  over  which  by  the  pro- 
cesses of  migration,  impelled  by  the  ever  present  needs 
of  subsistence,  the  life  of  the  lands  might  commingle. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  effect  of  such  a 
union  between  Asia  and  Australia  would  be  greatly 
to  advance  the  grade  of  organic  development  in  the 
southern  continent.     It  would  only  be  a  question  of 


NATCJKE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  15 

a  short  geological  time  before  the  Asiatic  competi- 
tors with  the  old  Australian  life  would  drive  it  from 
the  field.  Some  of  the  species  would  be  destroyed 
by  the  direct  assault  of  their  more  vigorous  enemies ; 
others  would  be  displaced  by  the  lack  of  food,  the 
plants  or  animals  which  they  originally  depended  up- 
on and  to  which  they  had  become  adapted  having  been 
driven  out  by  the  invasion.  We  see  something  of  the 
effects  which  would  be  produced  by  the  creation  of  a 
land-bridge  between  Australia  and  India,  when  we 
study  the  action  of  certain  species  which  have  been 
introduced  into  Australia  by  man.  Many  species  of 
European  animals  and  plants  have  come  to  Australia 
within  a  century.  On  the  new  ground  they  show  a 
curious  power  of  overcoming  and  displacing  the  na- 
tive species.  Thus,  the  European  rabbit,  which  in 
its  native  land  is  kept  in  check  by  weasels  and  foxes 
and  other  predaceous  animals,  runs  riot  in  Australia, 
and  has  become  a  menace  to  the  interests  ot  the  soil- 
tiller  and  the  shepherd. 

Something  of  the  effect  of  these  isthmuses  or  land- 
l)ridges  may  also  be  judged'  by  the  rapid  spread  of 
species  which  by  chance  are  introduced  into  new 
countries.  Ships  are  constantly  bringing  the  seeds  of 
different  countries  to  our  land.  Gaining  a  foothold 
on  the  shore,  these  forms  frequently  spread  with 
startling  rapidity,  and  become  usurpers  of  the  places 
of  our  native  forms.  A  large  part  of  our  common 
plants  in  New  England  —  nearly  all  our  most  suc- 
cessful weeds  —  are  from  other  lands. 


16  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Althoiigli  the  effect  of  geographic  changes  conse- 
quent upon  mountain-building  in  bridging  the  spaces 
of  the  sea  is  the  most  manifest  of  the  consequences 
attendant  on  the  development  of  these  elevations,  it 
is  not  the  most  important.  Whenever  a  region  of 
plain  land  is  converted  into  a  mountainous  district, 
a  great  change  of  climate  ensues.  The  temperatures 
and  the  rainfall  of  the  district  necessarily  undergo  a 
great  alteration  when  its  surface  is  elevated  by 
mountain-folding.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
nearly  all  the  organic  forms  are  singularly  limited 
by  conditions  of  temperature,  and  in  general  much 
affected  by  the  amount  of  rainfall.  Thus,  in  the  case 
of  our  domesticated  plants,  we  find  that  the  limits 
of  their  distribution  are  singularly  adjusted  either  to 
the  average  temperature  of  the  year,  that  of  the  grow- 
ing season,  or  that  of  winter.  -The  northern  limits 
of  our  vines,  olives,  figs,  and  a  host  of  other  plants 
follow  the  windings  of  the  isotherms  across  the  sur 
face  of  the  continents.  So  close  is  this  relation  that 
meteorologists  are  fairly  justified  in  the  assertion  that 
no  change  in  the  average  annual  temperatures  of  Eu- 
rope to  the  amount  of  one  degree  Fahrenheit  has  taken 
place  in  two  thousand  years.  They  base  this  opinion 
on  the  limits  of  the  plants  above-mentioned,  which 
limits  are  accurately  known  for  a  considerable  his- 
toric period.  Now,  as  the  elevation  of  a  surface  to 
the  amount  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  produces  a 
chilling  effect  on  the  climate  in  general  equivalent  to 
that  which  would  come  about  by  moving  that  region 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  17 

somewhere  near  a  degree  to  the  northward,  the  ac- 
tion of  mountain-building  on  climate  and  conse« 
quently  on  the  distribution  of  animals  and  plants  is 
necessarily  very  great. 

If  a  mountainous  elevation  having  a  height  of 
ten  thousand  feet  could  be  created  in  the  region 
immediately  north  of  Massachusetts,  the  effects  upon 
the  climate  of  the  uplifted  field  would  be  of  vast 
importance.  Nearly  if  not  quite  all  the  species 
inhabiting  the  territory  would  be  displaced  or  have 
their  distribution  changed.  North  of  the  ridge, 
because  of  the  barrier  which  it  would  create  be- 
tween the  southern  Atlantic  Ocean  and  Canada, 
the  country  would  be  reduced  to  a  condition  of  ste- 
rility. The  heat  would  be  diminished,  and  the  water- 
supply  lowered.  South  of  the  barrier  and  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  elevation,  the  effect  would  prob- 
ably be  to  increase  the  temperature  and  the  rain- 
fall by  shutting  off  the  north  winds  and  causing  a 
greater  precipitation  on  the  southward  versant  of  our 
imaginary  mountains.  The  effect  upon  the  climate 
of  the  region  we  occupy  would  be  further  complicated 
by  the  fact  that  such  an  elevated  district  would  be 
certain  to  become  the  seat  of  glaciers.  The  ice  wrap 
might  be  limited  to  the  upland  district  alone;  but  it 
is  possible  that  situated  as  New  England  is  in  rela- 
tion to  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  the  greater  part  of 
the  southern  versant  of  this  elevation  would  become 
occupied  by  massive  glaciers.  Indeed,  it  is  possible 
that  it  would  convert  the  whole  of  Massachusetts  into 

2 


18  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

an  ice-wrapped  country,  such  as  is  now  found  in 
Greenland. 

We  thus  see  that  the  creation  of  any  considera- 
ble mountain  mass  necessarily  changes  the  climatal 
regimen  of  a  district,  and  so  enforces  a  change  in 
the  limits  of  the  field  occupied  by  organic  forms; 
and,  as  before  remarked,  all  such  migratory  move- 
ments are  in  a  high  measure  favorable  to  that  strug- 
gle for  existence  in  which  the  higher  forms  survive 
and  the  lower  are  destroyed.  When  we  look  upon 
the  map  of  Europe  and  observe  the  distribution  of 
its  mountain  masses,  we  must  imagine  that  at  each 
stage  in  the  growth  of  these  elevations  we  have  had 
an  attendant  alteration  in  the  temperature  of  the 
land  of  that  continent,  and  a  consequent  marching 
to  and  fro  of  the  great  armies  of  life.  Each  of  these 
movements  has  meant  an  increase  in  the  contention 
between  the  struggling  forms.  As  long  as  the  land 
remains  in  a  stable  position,  the  combat  for  exist- 
ence takes  place  within  the  limits  of  a  given  prov- 
ince. Although  even  under  these  conditions  of 
stability,  the  battle  is  fierce,  its  intensity  is  vastly 
increased  when  one  organic  assemblage  —  one  bio- 
logical army,  as  we  may  term  it  —  is  compelled  to 
invade  the  province  of  another.  When  such  altera- 
tions occur,  all  the  old  adjustments  between  species 
are  more  or  less  broken  up,  and  before  the  new  order 
is  instituted  many  of  the  ancient  forms  will  probably 
be  destroyed. 

We  may  help  ourselves  to  imagine  these  conditions 


NATURE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  19 

by  taking  the  analogical  phenomena  which  occur  in 
those  great  migrations  which  brought  the  people  of 
northern  Asia  and  northern  Europe  upon  the  civilized 
districts  about  the  Mediterranean.  Although  the 
wars  between  the  states  of  southern  Europe  had 
proved  in  many  cases  disastrous  to  their  civilization, 
the  effects  of  these  struggles  were  small  compared 
with  the  ruin  which  the  migratory  invasions  of  the 
northern  peoples  brought  about.  We  may  compare 
the  ordinary  civil  wars  within  States  to  the  combat 
which  constantly  goes  on  between  contending  species 
that  occupy  the  same  biological  province ;  while  the 
invasional  movements  of  the  Hun  and  Goth  afford 
a  certain  analogy  with  the  destruction  which  occurs 
from  the  migratory  movements  of  large  assemblages 
of  life  under- the  influence  of  climatal  change. 

In  the  sea  the  effects  of  mountain-building  or  of 
continental  growth,  though  less  manifest  in  geologi- 
cal history,  are  doubtless  quite  as  important  as  those 
which  are  exercised  upon  the  lands.  Marine  animals 
are  singularly  sensitive  to  peculiarities  of  tempera- 
ture. Even  our  more  vigorous  fishes  are  narrowly 
limited  by  the  heat  of  the  water  which  they  occupy. 
Thus  the  blue-fish  (Temnodon  saltator)  of  our  New 
England  coast,  one  of  the  most  aggressive  forms  of 
its  class,  finds  at  present  its  northern  limit  deter- 
mined by  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod.  South  of  that 
boundary  it  is  one  of  the  dominant  creatures  of  the 
sea,  and  is  extremely  abundant.  Although  from  time 
to  time,   with  variations  in  the  temperature  of  the 


20  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

sea-water  at  particular  seasons,  it  finds  its  way  north 
of  Cape  Cod  and  establishes  itself  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,  it  never  has  succeeded  in  maintaining  itself  in 
that  field.  Two  or  three  times  within  a  century  it 
has  won  a  place  in  those  waters,  only  to  be  beaten 
back  by  the  cold  of  the  next  season.  Occasional  in- 
vasions of  cold  water,  characteristic  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  destroy  great  quantities  of  fish  in  more  southern 
waters.  A  capital  instance  of  this  action  was  seen 
in  the  case  of  the  tile-fish,  which  was  found  by  the 
United  States  Fish  Commission  to  be  extremely 
abundant  in  the  region  immediately  south  of  Nan- 
tucket shoals.  For  a  while  the  field  occupied  by 
this  fish  promised  to  be  a  valuable  station  for  our 
fishermen;  but  all  at  once  the  species  disappeared 
from  the  locality.  Vast  quantities  of  their  bodies 
were  found  floating  on  the  surface  of  the  sea;  and  the 
most  reasonable  explanation  of  their  death  seems  to 
be  a  slight  and  temporary  alteration  in  the  run  of  the 
currents  about  Cape  Cod,  which  brought  the  arctic 
waters  a  little  farther  south  than  usual. 

The  temperature  of  the  North  Atlantic  depends  in 
very  large  measure  upon  the  tide  of  warm  waters 
brought  to  that  region  by  the  Gulf  Stream.  Dr. 
James  Croll  has  shown  that  the  Gulf  Stream  brings 
to  the  region  within  the  Arctic  Circle  more  heat 
than  comes  to  the  earth  in  that  region  directly  from 
the  sun.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  limits  of  that; 
stream  are  determined  by  the  existence  of  geographici 
barriers.     If  the  region  about  the  northern  part  of] 


NATUEE   AND   MAN   IN  AiNIERICA.  21 

South  America  and  the  isthmian  district  which  con- 
nects the  twin  American  continents  were  lowered 
beneath  the  sea,  this  great  current  would  not  enter 
the  northern  Atlantic,  but  would  stream  forth  into 
the  central  parts  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  result 
of  such  a  change  would  be  that  the  temperatures  of 
the  sea  water  throughout  the  North  Atlantic  would 
be  profoundly  altered,  and  the  life  of  all  that  wide 
ocean  would  be  compelled  to  undergo  vast  migrations. 
Even  slight  geographic  changes  may  produce  most 
important  effects  upon  the  rate  of  movement  of  the 
Gulf  Stream  and  the  consequent  temperature  condi- 
tions of  the  North  Atlantic.  Thus  at  a  very  recent 
time  in  a  geological  sense,  probably  since  the  com- 
ing of  man  on  the  earth's  surface,  the  peninsula  of 
Florida  was  deeply  depressed  below  its  present  level, 
so  that  the  part  of  the  Gulf  Stream  which  passes 
through  the  straits  of  that  name  flowed  freely  over 
the  surface  of  the  peninsula,  the  current  having  its 
northern  border  considerably  at  the  north  of  Tampa. 
When  flowing  in  this  position,  it  is  likely  that  the 
waters  of  the  Gulf  Stream  had  a  slower  current  than 
at  present,  and  were  discharged  on  their  path  toward 
northern  Europe  with  less  momentum  than  now 
characterizes  them.  It  is  mainly  if  not  altogether 
to  this  initial  velocity  that  we  owe  the  efficiency  of 
the  Gulf  Stream  as  a  warmth-bringing  current  in 
high  latitudes.  If  its  average  velocity  were  dimin- 
ished by  as  much  as  half  a  mile  an  hour  where 
it  passes  Cape  Hatteras,  the  effect  would  probably  be 


22  NATURE  AND   MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

to  lower  the  temperature  of  the  North  Atlantic  by 
several  degrees  Fahrenheit,  —  a  change  sufficient  not 
only  to  affect  the  distribution,  of  marine  life,  but  also 
in  a  secondary  way  profoundly  to  influence  the  tem- 
perature and  thus  the  vital  status  of  northern  Europe. 

Whenever  a  considerable  range  of  mountains  is 
elevated,  we  often  find  as  a  complement  to  the  up- 
thrust  a  system  of  depressions  formed  on  either  side 
of  the  axis  of  elevation.  If  the  mountains  are  of 
great  mass  and  occupy  an  extended  area,  this  sys- 
tem of  troughs  on  either  side  may  attain  to  some- 
thing like  a  corresponding  profundity  and  extent. 
Thus  the  deep  basin  of  the  Mediterranean  is  proba- 
bly to  be  explained  by  the  downward  movement  of 
the  strata  corresponding  to  the  great  mountain  up- 
lifts which  have  taken  place  on  its  northern  and 
southern  shores.  The  basin  may,  in  a  Avord,  be  de- 
fined as  a  geological  depression  between  the  Alpine 
and  Apennine  systems  on  the  north  and  the  Atlas 
system  on  the  south  of  this  trough. 

The  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  for 
geological  ages  was  a  vast  mediterranean  of  North 
America,  is  in  structure  the  downward  flexing  fold 
between  the  Rocky  Mountains  or  Cordilleras  and  the 
Appalachian  system  of  elevations.  The  Gulf  of 
Mexico  is  the  small  remnant  of  this  great  basin.  A 
lesser  trough  of  the  same  sort  lies  between  the  west- 
ern element  of  the  Cordilleras,  which  constitute  the 
promontory  of  southern  California  and  the  eastern 
element   composing  the  mass  of  Mexico.     All  our 


i 


NATURE   AND  IVIAN  IN  AMERICA.  23 

continental  shore-lines  show  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  the  effect  of  these  mountain  troughs  in  bring- 
ing the  ocean  waters  in  the  form  of  more  or  less 
enclosed  seas  far  into  the  land.  Often  these  inclu- 
sions of  the  sea  serve  greatly  to  diversify  the  land 
climates.  Thus  the  peculiar  fertility  of  the  Medi- 
terranean shores  is  in  part  due  to  the  presence  of 
that  vast  system  of  enclosed  waters  which  has  been 
created  by  the  process  of  mountain-building. 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  proposed  to  introduce  the 
ocean  waters  into  certain  depressed  areas  of  the 
Sahara.  Although  the  area  which  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  cover  with  the  sea  is  less  than  one  hundred 
thousand  square  miles,  it  was  objected  to  the  pro- 
ject that  it  would  be  likely  to  change  the  climates 
on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  increas- 
ing the  humidity  of  that  area  and  making  the  grape 
and  certain  other  crops  less  valuable  than  at  present. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  the  objection  was  in  a 
measure  valid ;  and  we  may  judge  from  it  how  potent 
is  the  influence  of  these  great  arms  of  the  sea  in  the 
complicated  equations  which  determine  European 
climates  or  those  of  other  continents. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  peculiar  effect  due  to 
the  presence  of  mountains  in  a  country,  —  an  effect 
serving  to  intensify  the  phenomena  of  combat  on 
which  advance  of  organic  life  so  much  depends. 
Where  the  surface  of  the  land  is  in  the  form  of  a 
great  plain,  such  as  the  prairies  of  the  Mississippi 
valley,  the  area  occupied  by  any  one  species  is  very 


24  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

extensive.  We  may  make  a  journey  from  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  northward 
to  Wisconsin,  without  noting  any  very  great  differ- 
ences in  the  species  of  the  animals  or  plants  which 
we  encounter.  The  fact  is  that  in  going  this 
distance  we  vary  the  temperature,  that  of  the 
growing  season  at  least,  by  a  very  slight  amount. 
The  effect  of  the  difference  of  latitude  is  scarcely 
perceptible,  being  qualified  by  many  other  slight 
differences.  The  total  number  of  native  flowering 
plants  which  may  be  gathered  in  this  field  probably 
does  not  exceed  fourteen  hundred;  so,  too,  the  in- 
sects, the  birds,  and  the  mammals,  the  various  forms 
which  depend  upon  the  plant  life,  are  also  relatively 
few  in  number.  Let  us  suppose  this  region  now  to 
be  converted  into  a  mountainous  country,  having  a 
variety  of  surface  and  a  relief  which  we  find  in  the 
Alps,  and  note  the  effect  on  the  variety  and  distribu- 
tion of  organic  forms.  We  can  best  guide  our  fancy 
in  this  ideal  experiment,  by  considering  the  con- 
ditions of  organic  life  in  Switzerland,  comparing 
them  with  those  now  existing  on  the  prairies  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  If  the  observer  goes  to  the 
southern  face  of  the  Alps,  on  the  shores  of  the  beau- 
tiful lakes  of  northern  Italy,  he  finds  himself  in  a 
subtropical  climate.  The  fig,  the  pomegranate,  and 
other  southern  plants  can  in  favored  sites  maintain 
themselves  in  the  open  air  at  the  lowest  points  of 
the  surface.  The  vegetation  has  not  only  the  botan- 
ical  aspect   but  the    luxuriance   which    belongs   to 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  25 

southern  climes.  The  same  almost  subtropical 
character  of  the  climate  is  shown  also  in  the  physi- 
cal aspect  and  the  general  quality  of  the  people  as 
well  as  in  the  lower  forms  of  life. 

Ascending  the  slopes  of  the  Alps,  the  attentive  ob- 
server notes  that  for  each  thousand  feet  of  ascent 
great  changes  take  place  in  the  character  of  the 
plants  and  in  the  higher  forms  of  animal  life  which 
are  dependent  upon  them.  With  each  gradation  of 
his  ascent  he  enters  on  the  field  of  new  species ;  and 
so  within  the  limits  of  a  single  day's  climb  he  may 
traverse  all  the  zones  of  organic  life  which  he  could 
encounter  in  passing  along  the  sea-shore  from  the 
parallel  of  Lake  Como  to  the  Arctic  Circle.  In 
other  words,  we  have  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
Switzerland  almost  as  great  a  range  of  climate  as  we 
find  in  passing  up  the  low-lying  plain  of  the  conti- 
nent from  New  Orleans  to  Great  Slave  Lake.  With- 
in the  limits  of  the  area  of  Switzerland,  which  does 
not  exceed  one  half  the  surface  of  Indiana,  we  may 
find  a  greater  variety  of  climate  and  a  wider  range 
of  organic  forms  than  is  afforded  by  an  area  of 
plain-land  having  several  times  the  surface  of  that 
State.  The  range  in  the  height  of  the  land  in 
Indiana  is  less  than  five  hundred  feet,  while  in 
Switzerland  it  exceeds  fifteen  thousand  feet. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  momentous  conse- 
quences must  arise  from  this  packing  within  a  nar- 
row field  of  the  many  different  kindred  species, 
placed  in  zones  one  above  another  between  tlie  base 


26  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  mountains  and  the  uppermost  zone  occupied  by 
life.  Each  alteration  of  climate  brought  upon  a 
given  mountain  district  by  geographic  change  occur- 
ring within  its  own  limits  or  communicated  by  other 
mountain  movements  will  lead  to  a  readjustment  of 
the  barriers  occupied  by  different  species.  This 
readjustment  will  be  brought  about  by  combat  of  one 
form  with  another  for  the  place  in  which  they  live 
or  the  food  on  which  they  subsist.  It  is  true  that 
such  a  struggle  will  also  occur  on  the  plain ;  but  on 
the  surface  of  this  level  ground  there  are  no  distinct, 
clearly  drawn  boundaries  of  climate;  while  in  a 
mountain  district  each  considerable  isolated  mass  is 
an  independent,  sharply  defined  theatre  of  combat. 
Each  peak  is%s  it  were  a  battlefield,  and  the  amount 
of  contention  is  vastly  enhanced  by  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  area  on  which  it  takes  place. 

Moreover,  in  the  mountain  district  manifold 
chances  serve  to  bring  the  creatures  of  the  neigh- 
boring provinces  into  contention  with  one  another. 
Every  strong  wind  carries  the  seeds  of  plants  or  the 
eggs  of  insects  or  indeed  their  living  bodies  from  one 
zone  into  another.  Every  avalanche  that  falls  serves 
to  displace  certain  forms  from  their  accustomed  zones, 
and  to  give  them  an  opportunity  of  trying  their 
strength  in  the  contention  with  the  occupants  of  the 
lower  realms.  Thus  a  mountainous  district  becomes 
a  sort  of  natural  experiment  station,  where  the  rela- 
tive powers  of  diverse  species,  their  fitness  for  par- 
ticular modes  of  life,  are  tried  in  a  far  more  effective 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  27 

manner  than  is  possible  in  a  region  of  plains.  We 
are  thus  forced  to  the  opinion  that  the  crowding  of 
species  which  necessarily  takes  place  in  a  mountain- 
built  country,  provided  it  is  not  exceptionally  arid 
in  its  character,  cannot  be  without  influence  in  favor- 
ing the  struggle  for  existence,  thus  helping  the  ad- 
vance in  the  scale  of  being. 

There  is  a  yet  larger  view  of  the  effect  of  moun- 
tains in  promoting  the  combat  between  species.  In 
a  continent  such  as  Europe,  where  a  great  diver- 
sity in  the  mountain  systems  favors  the  localization 
of  life  and  the  development  of  peculiar  forms,  the 
tendency  is  to  develop  in  separate  mountain  strong- 
holds particular  species,  and  evolve  their  militant 
peculiarities  until  the  forms  are  fitted  to  enter  into  a 
larger  contention  with  their  kindred  species  in  less 
localized  assemblages  of  life.  Thus  each  mountain 
district  becomes  as  it  were  a  cradle  for  the  culture  of 
peculiar  forms,  which  in  time,  when  they  have  been 
proven  by  contention  on  their  own  ground,  may 
enter  upon  a  wider  field  of  combat. 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  not  yet  consid- 
ered the  relation  of  mankind  to  mountains,  and  this 
for  the  reason  that  the  circumstances  which  affect 
the  development  of  man,  circumstances  arising  from 
the  high  measure  of  intelligence  with  which  he  is  en- 
dowed, make  it  unsafe  to  rest  general  conclusions  as 
to  the  conduct  of  nature  upon  his  peculiar  history. 
At  a  later  stage  in  our  inquiry  we  shall  take  up  the 
development  of  man,  and  observe  the   effect  of  the 


28  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

earth's  surface  upon  his  qualities.  For  the  moment 
the  reader  may  supply  from  his  memory  abundant 
instances  to  show  how  far  the  localization  of  human 
life  in  Europe  which  has  been  brought  about  by 
mountain  systems  has  served  to  make  that  country 
the  .cradle  of  strong  peoples,  and  to  give  them 
strength  for  the  contention  which  they  had  in  time 
to  undergo. 

Limiting  ourselves  for  the  time  being  to  the  lite 
below  man,  we  see  from  the  foregoing  considerations 
two  reasons  which  lead  us  to  understand  why  it  is 
that  the  rate  of  development  of  life  on  the  difterent 
continents  has  in  a  measure  depended  upon  the  phy- 
sical accidents  in  the  way  of  mountain-building  to 
which  the  country  has  been  subjected.  Every  stage 
in  mountain-building  means  a  variation  in  the  cli- 
mate, a  change  in  the  limits  of  those  organic  assem- 
blages termed  faunas  and  florae,  and  a  consequent 
increase  in  the  measure  of  that  struggle  for  existence 
on  which  the  development  of  the  higher  forms  so 
clearly  depends.  Advance  depends  on  the  conten- 
tion between  differences,  and  mountains  greatly  favor 
this  combat. 

The  reader  may  help  his  conception  of  the  effect  of 
stress  of  conditions  on  the  advance  of  organic  life  by 
the  consideration  of  the  organisms  on  the  deeper  sea- 
floors.  As  soon  as  naturalists  obtained  a  knowledge 
of  deep-sea  life,  they  were  struck  by  the  fact  that  the 
forms  in  the  abyssal  regions  of  the  oceanic  fields  — 
say  below  depths  of   five   thousand  feet  —  were  sin- 


NATURE  AND   iMAN   IN   AMERICA.  29 

gularly  archaic  in  their  aspect.  We  find  there 
many  groups  of  species  curiously  like  the  forms 
which  dwelt  in  the  shallow  water  along  our  sea- 
shores in  the  early  Tertiary  and  Cretaceous  or  even 
in  Jurassic  periods.  It  is  evident  that  while  the  life 
of  the  shore,  that  which  is  termed  littoral  in  its 
character,  has  in  modern  times  rapidly  advanced, 
the  forms  of  the  deeper  sea-floor  have  been  hindered 
in  their  development  much  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  Australian  land  life  has  been  retarded  in  its 
ongoing  during  the  geological  ages.  The  only  expla- 
nation of  this  retardation  in  deep-sea  life  is  that  by 
which  we  account  for  the  similar  slow  ongoing  of 
the  Australian  life,  —  namely,  that  by  the  absence 
of  a  sufficient  variety  of  conditions,  the  general  uni- 
formity in  circumstances  of  environment  from  age  to 
age  has  failed  to  supply  the  whip  which  has  led  in 
other  regions  to  a  rapid  advance. 

Another  striking  instance  which  serves  to  show  us 
the  effect  of  the  conditions  which  environ  organisms 
is  found  in  the  state  of  advance  of  organic  life  within 
the  tropics  and  about  either  pole.  In  the  tropical 
conditions  of  the  earth  we  observe  that  organic  forms 
attain  on  the  wdiole  less  advance  than  in  the  middle 
latitudes.  A  host  of  forms  which  in  the  earlier  geo- 
logical days  were  enabled  to  meet  the  climatal  condi- 
tions of  high  latitudes  have  gradually  been  beaten 
back  by  the  stress  of  environment  until  they  survive 
only  in  regions  near  the  equator.  The  elephants 
which  in  preglacial  days,  or  perhaps  even  to  the  close 


30  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  last  ice  period,  were  plentifully  found  in  the 
northern  parts  of  America  and  Europe,  and  were  fitted 
to  meet  the  conditions  of  cold  winters  by  their  admi- 
rable covering  of  hair,  are  no  longer  able  to  endure 
those  conditions.  The  same  is  true  of  the  rhinoce- 
roses and  a  number  of  our  great  mammals,  as  well 
as  of  many  other  groups  of  animals. 

When  a  group  of  organic  forms  —  owing  perhaps 
to  the  loss  of  these  powers  of  resistance  with  old  age, 
which  comes  upon  species  and  genera  as  well  as  upon 
individuals  —  is  unfit  to  cope  with  the  stern  con- 
ditions of  high  latitudes,  it  falls  back  into  the  great 
almshouse  of  the  tropics,  where  though  the  struggle 
for  subsistence  and  the  combat  with  enemies  may 
be  severe,  the  creatures  are  at  least  spared  the  con- 
tention with  climatal  ills.  By  this  fact  we  may 
measure  the  energy  with  which  the  whips  of  neces- 
sity are  applied  to  the  lower  life  as  well  as  to  that 
of  man  in  the  intemperate  climates  of  the  earth. 
Where  the  rigors  of  winter  and  summer  alternate, 
life  finds  itself  in  very  trying  conditions :  each  win- 
ter a  sentence  of  death  is  passed  upon  the  unfit, 
and  the  creatures  which  cannot  withstand  the  stress 
must  perish  or  betake  themselves  to  a  tropical  realm. 

In  the  circumpolar  regions,  where  the  trials  of 
winter  are  extreme,  we  obtain  another  lesson  which 
serves  our  end.  In  those  high  latitudes  organic 
forms  are  borne  down  by  cold ;  only  those  which  have 
succeeded  most  perfectly  in  adapting  themselves  to 
rigorous  conditions  survive :    the  greater  part  of  the 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA.  31 

creatures  have  to  retain  life  by  accepting  a  deathlike 
sleep  during  the  period  of  cold.  Those  which  can- 
not meet  the  besetting  dangers  in  this  manner  or 
by  other  protections  must  perish  or  betake  them- 
selves to  more  temperate  climes. 

We  have  now  considered  some  of  the  plainest  in- 
stances of  the  effect  of  physical  conditions  on  organic 
development.  Although  the  facts  which  we  have 
noted  are  of  a  very  general  sort,  lacking  the  particu- 
larization  which  is  desirable  in  all  such  considera- 
tions, they  are  sufficiently  clear  to  show  us  that 
in  the  process  of  the  ages  the  development  of  life 
is  singularly  affected  by  the  physical  conditions  of 
the  earth's  surface. 


CHAPTER  IT.  . 

Nature  and  Origin  of  Continents. — Effect  of  Continents  on  Seas. — Interac- 
tion of  Sea  and  Land.  —  Salinity  of  Ocean  and  Dead  Seas.  —  Transporta- 
tion of  Material  from  Land  to  Sea.  —  Effect  of  Volcanoes.  —  Possible 
effect  arising  from  Destruction  of  Continents.  —Effect  of  Sea  and  Land 
on  Organic  Life  ;  Conditions  of  Passage  of  Life  from  Sea  to  Land. — 
Brief  Statement  as  to  Development  of  Life.  — EHTect  of  Mountain  Growth, 
Absence  of  such  Structures  on  the  Sea  Floor.  —  "Relations  of  Mountains 
to  Continental  Growth. — Effect  of  Mountains  on  North  America. — 
Movements  of  Subterranean  Materials  in  the  Process  of  Mountain- 
Building 

The  considerations  presented  in  the  preceding 
chapter  show  us  in  a  general  way  how  intimate  is 
the  connection  between  the  irregularities  of  form  of 
the  land  and  the  circumstances  —  or  environment,  as 
Darwinians  call  it  —  of  organic  life.  Whether  it  be 
on  sea  or  land,  the  depth  or  height  —  or,  in  other 
words,  the  relief  —  of  the  surface  has  a  direct  effect 
upon  climate,  an  effect  on  the  measure  of  crowding 
of  the  organic  forms  within  the  same  field;  while  all 
the  changes  in  this  element  of  altitude  have  a  direct 
and  important  influence  on  the  phenomenon  of  mi- 
gration. The  logical  order  of  discussion  would  have 
required  us  to  bring  these  facts  into  view  at  the  end 
of  our  considerations ;  but  at  the  outset  of  an  exposi- 
tion such  as  we  have  before  us  it  is  well  to  bring 
such  matters  to  mind,  for  they  enlarge  the  under- 
standing with  which  we  consider  less  ample  facts, 


I 


NATURE   AXD   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  33 

which  we  now  have  to  face.  Heretofore  we  have 
considered  in  a  general  way  certain  effects  arising 
from  the  form  of  the  land  reliefs  which  we  term 
mountains. 

We  will  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  larger 
groups  of  eminences  on  the  earth's  crust  which  re- 
ceive the  name  of  continents.  The  difference  be- 
tween continental  elevations  and  those  of  mountains 
is  even  at  a  glance  conspicuous.  Mountains  are 
sharp  flexures  in  the  rocks  which  compose  the  earth's 
crust.  In  them  we  may  find  a  single  fold  more  or 
less  worn  by  atmospheric  agents,  or  there  may  be  a 
number  of  parallel  ridges  crowded  together  into  a 
chain.  In  most  cases  the  central  axis  or  the  group 
of  ridges  of  a  mountain  range  constitutes  a  narrow 
and  very  elongate  field  of  disturbance;  commonly 
the  length  of  the  system  of  elevations  is  ten  times  or 
more  the  width  of  the  disturbed  rocks.  Continents, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  very  wide,  subtriangular 
masses  of  land,  their  apices  pointing  toward  the 
south  pole  while  the  bases  face  the  northern  end  of 
the  earth's  axis.  These  continental  folds,  unlike 
those  of  the  mountain,  are  extremely  wide  in  pro- 
portion to  their  height.  Thus  the  great  elevation  of 
the  earth's  crust  which  constitutes  the  continent  of 
North  America  springs  from  the  sea  floor  a  thousand 
miles  to  the  east  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  rises  very 
gradually  to  the  summits  of  the  continent,  and  thence 
declines  rather  more  rapidly  from  the  Pacific  coast 
to  the  floor  of  the  ocean  on  the  west.     The  average 

3 


34  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMEKICA. 

width  of  the  North  American  continent  exceeds  four 
thousand  miles ;  while  the  average  height  above  the 
sea  floor  on  either  side  does  not  much  exceed  three 
miles.  Thus  the  continental  ridge  is  about  a  thou- 
sand times  as  wide  as  high;  while  the  mountain 
ridges  are  commonly  not  more  than  fifty  times  as 
wide  as  their  height. 

Each  continent  consists  of  a  broad  irregular  fold 
of  the  earth's  crust  upon  which  rest  the  sharper 
ridges  of  the  mountains.  In  places,  as  for  in- 
stance in  the  isthmian  district  of  Central  America, 
the  continent  consists  almost  altogether  of  mountain- 
ous elevations ;  while  in  the  northern  parts  of  the 
field  the  continental  elevation  is  only  composed  in  a 
small  measure  of  mountain  folds. 

The  division  of  the  earth  into  the  fields  of  land 
and  water  depends  altogether  upon  the  circumstances 
which  lead  to  the  formation  of  continents.  Were  it 
not  for  the  growth  of  these  singular  elevations,  the 
sea  would  be  entirely  unbroken  by  land.  It  is  true 
that  here  and  there  volcanic  peaks  pierce  the  surface 
of  the  wide  oceans ;  but,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter, 
the  development  of  volcanic  energy  depends  upon 
conditions  which  would  not  exist  if  the  lands  were 
not  present  amid  the  waters.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
certain  important  consequences  to  organic  life  follow 
immediately  upon  this  division  of  the  earth's  surface 
into  sea  and  land.  All  the  higher  life  of  our  planet 
finds  its  theatre  upon  the  land  surface,  and  finds  that 
surface  fitted  for  occupation  by  reason  of  the  fact 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  35 

that  the  seas  give  it  their  constant  tribute  of  rain. 
All  the  life  of  the  earth  depends  upon  the  constant 
presence  of  water  upon  its  surface  in  positions  suited 
for  the  needs  of  organic  forms.  Indeed,  our  bodies 
are  in  a  physical  sense  water-engines  driven  by  solar 
heat. 

If  the  lands  were  submerged,  all  the  greatest  gains 
from  the  development  of  organic  life,  all  the  su- 
perior groups  of  animals  and  plants,  would  quickly 
cease  to  be.  The  mammals,  except  the  whales,  the 
dolphins,  and  their  kindred,  depend  upon  the  land 
for  their  development  and  maintenance.  The  birds, 
the  insects,  and  all  the  higher  plants  are  likewise 
limited  to,  or  dependent  on,  the  land  areas.  Im- 
portant as  are  these  facts,  they  are  only  a  small  part 
of  the  consequences  which  come  from  the  existence 
of  this  twofold  division  of  the  earth's  surface  into 
sea  and  land.  Nearly  all  the  geological  processes 
are  intimately  dependent  on  this  method  of  partition 
of  the  earth's  surface.  In  order  that  we  may  have 
before  us  the  general  importance  of  this  system  of 
surface  division,  we  must  now  consider  the  interac- 
tive effect  of  land  and  sea  in  the  economy  of  our 
planet. 

To  grasp  the  particular  functions  of  sea  and  land, 
let  us  take  the  process  of  erosion  which  goes  on  in 
any  river  valley,  such  as  that  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  heat  of  the  sun  evaporates  the  water  of  the  sea. 
The  same  solar  heat  sets  the  air  in  motion,  and  the 
vapor  rising  from  the  oceans  is  borne  in  from  the 


36  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

marine  areas  upon  the  surface  of  the  land,  and  there 
falls  as  rain.  In  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  about 
two  and  one-half  feet  of  rain  come  upon  the  surface 
each  year.  This  water  exercises  two  classes  of 
effects  by  the  mechanical  energy  due  to  the  height 
above  the  sea  to  which  it  comes  to  the  earth's  sur- 
face ;  it  flows  down  the  slope  of  the  land,  and  as  it 
flows  wears  away  that  surface.  At  the  same  time 
the  chemical  properties  of  the  water  acting  on  the 
rocks  rot  them,  or  produce  what  geologists  term  a 
corrosive  effect,  breaking  them  into  bits  fine  enough 
to  be  taken  into  solution.  The  torrents  of  the  up- 
land districts  bear  them  on,  uniting  their  floods  in 
the  main  channel  of  the  lower  river,  whence  there 
goes  into  the  sea  each  year  from  one  twentieth  to  one 
tenth  part  of  a  cubic  mile  of  broken  up  materials 
taken  from  the  earth's  crust.  The  larger  part  oi 
this  material  swept  away  from  the  surface  of  the 
continent  and  discharged  through  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi  is  in  the  state  of  mechanical  solution,  as 
mud  in  the  water ;  but  probably  rather  more  than  one 
tenth  of  the  whole  is  completely  dissolved  as  sugar  is 
dissolved  in  water,  before  the  saturation  point  is  at- 
tained. The  mud  a-nd  sand  which  are  in  the  first  or 
mechanical  state  of  solution  fall  to  the  ocean  floor, 
and  serve  to  make  the  ordinary  sediments  which  ac- 
cumulate about  the  margin  of  the  continent.  These 
materials  are  swept  to  and  fro  by  the  tides  and  shore 
currents,  and  l)uilt  into  that  broad  platform  called 
the  continental  shelf,  which  extends  along  the  mar- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  37 

gin  of  the  seas,  forming  the  shallow  water-belt  which 
generally  fringes  the  continents.  In  this  way  the 
larger  part  of  the  sediments  which  compose  the  rocks 
such  as  sandstones,  clay-slates,  and  conglomerates, 
are  gathered  about  the  flanks  of  the  continents,  and 
built  into  the  sea  floor  to  be  converted  into  land  in 
the  subsequent  uprisings  of  the  continental  area. 

The  material  held  in  the  state  of  complete  solu- 
tion is  not  taken  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  by  gravity, 
but  may  remain  suspended  in  the  water  for  an  indefi- 
nite time.  Its  history  subsequent  to  its  escape  from 
the  land  constitutes  one  of  the  most  interesting  chap- 
ters in  the  earth's  physiology. 

We  all  know  that  the  sea  is  salt.  This  evident 
salinity  is  due  to  the  fact  that  certain  dissolved 
substances  brought  out  by  the  rivers,  such  as  sodium 
chloride,  or  common  salt,  exist  in  large  enough 
quantities  to  be  evident  to  the  taste ;  but  it  is  only 
of  late  that  the  chemical  study  of  sea  waters  has 
shown  us  that  they  contain  something  of  almost,  if 
not  quite  all,  the  substances  which  enter  into  the 
composition  of  our  rocks.  Thus,  for  instance,  many 
of  our  metals,  even  the  rarer  kinds,  are  present  in 
sea  water.  Silver  exists  there  in  such  quantities 
that  practical  metallurgists  at  the  smelting-works  in 
Swansea  and  elsewhere  maintain  that  the  copper 
from  ships'  bottoms  amalgamates  with  the  silver 
in  the  water  through  which  the  vessel  passes  on  its 
way  through  the  sea,  and  thus  in  time  this  copper  be- 
comes so  enriched  that  it  is  profitable  to  extract  the 


88  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

precious  metal  from  old  sheathing.  Iron,  gold,  lead, 
and  various  other  substances  which  are  of  difficult 
solution  combine  as  chlorides  or  other  chemical  as- 
sociations, and  are  also  dissolved  in  the  ocean  waters. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  substances  are  pres- 
ent in  the  sea,  and  that  through  the  process  above  des- 
cribed they  are  maintained  in  solution.  We  have  in 
our  salt  lakes  —  such  as  the  Dead  Sea  of  Judaea,  the 
Salt  Lake  of  Utah,  and  thousands  of  other  similar 
basins  —  sufficient  evidence  that  rain-water  is  con- 
stantly bearing  mineral  matters  from  the  land  to  the 
oceans.  Wherever  a  lake  is  formed  in  an  area  so 
dry  that  the  tributary  waters  are  unable  to  fill  the 
basin,  — where,  in  a  word,  the  drainage  of  the  lake  is 
through  the  air  and  not  through  a  river,  —  we  find 
that  the  water  becomes  charged  with  dissolved  sub- 
stances in  just  the  manner  in  which  the  sea  is  laden 
with  these  materials. 

It  is  to  this  richness  of  the  sea  in  mineral  sub- 
stances of  various  kinds  that  we  owe  the  extensive 
development  of  organic  life  which  takes  place  in 
its  waters.  Marine  plants  find  excellent  nutrition 
in  these  materials.  To  them  the  water  affords  the 
substances  required  for  their  rapid  growth.  The 
result  is  that  the  sea  is  occupied  ])y  a  great  variety 
oi  water  plants,  while  it  would  be  destitute  of  such 
organisms  if  it  had  the  purity  of  a  mountain  stream. 
Pure,  however,  as  are  these  streams  of  the  hills,  they 
are  constantly  dissolving  substances  from  the  land 
in  small  quantities,   and  carrying  them  to.  the  sea, 


NATURE  AND   :\1AN  IN  AMERICA.  39 

from  whose  waters  there  is  no  escape,  except  through 
the  machinery  of  organic  life.  Plants  take  the  ma- 
terials from  the  sea  water,  and  marine  animals  ob- 
tain them  at  second  hand  from  the  plants,  or  with  one 
further  step  through  the  bodies  of  other  animals 
which  they  may  consume;  and  the  dead  bodies  of 
animals  and  plants  alike  are  built  into  the  sea  floor 
in  the  form  of  our  limestones  and  other  rocks  com- 
posed of  organic  sediments.  In  this  way  the  depos- 
its formed  on  the  sea-floor  are  immediately  dependent 
for  the  materials  which  compose  them  on  the  wear 
which  takes  place  on  the  land,  either  in  the  basins 
of  the  rivers  or  along  the  line  of  the  sea-shores. 

A  portion  of  the  substances  which  enter  into  the 
deposits  of  the  ocean  floor  are  derived  from  volcanic 
eruptions.  It  now  appears  that  this  contribution 
from  volcanoes  may  amount  to  a  considerable  frac- 
tion, perhaps  more  than  one  half  of  all  the  sediments 
which  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  wider  seas ;  but  even 
this  volcanic  waste  would  prol)ably  not  be  ejected 
save  for  the  contribution  of  sediments  which  come  to 
the  ocean  floor  from  the  lands.  As  this  effect  of 
volcanic  action  is  of  much  importance  in  the  physi- 
ography of  the  earth,  we  must  give  it  some  considera- 
tion. It  now  seems  tolera])ly  certain  that  volcanoes 
are  to  be  explained  in  the  following  manner,  —  in  a 
way  which  shows  them  to  be  dependent  on  the  laying 
down  of  strata  worn  from  the  land  upon  the  ocean 
bottoms ;  and  this  for  the  following  reasons  :  — 

All   volcanic  explosions  of   characteristic   nature 


40  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

are  essentially  outbreaks  of  steam  at  high  tempera- 
tures.  The  lava  and  the  ashes  are  accidental  ele- 
ments in  the  outrush  of  steam,  seeking  to  escape 
under  the  tensions  given  to  it  by  their  great  heat. 
This  steam  is  made  from  water  imprisoned  in  the 
rocks  at  the  time  when  they  are  laid  down  on  the 
sea  floor.  The  beds  of  sand,  mud,  and  lime  which 
are  now  gathering  on  the  bottom  of  the  seas  con- 
tain from  five  to  twenty  per  cent  of  water  built  into 
their  interstices  when  they  were  formed.  In  time, 
when  later  accumulations  of  strata  are  imposed  upon 
them  to  the  depth  of  many  thousand  feet  as  the 
sea  bottoms  slowly  sink  down,  a  thick  blanket  of 
rock  is  laid  upon  the  lower  layers  of  sediment, 
which,  from  the  conditions  of  their  construction, 
contain  a  large  amount  of  water.  This  blanket  of 
sediments  is  a  good  non-conductor,  serving  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  internal  heat,  which  is  always  creep- 
ing out  through  the  earth's  crust  and  radiating  away 
into  the  stellar  spaces.  The  result  is  that  in  time 
the  lower  portions  of  the  stratified  outer  parts  of  the 
earth  attain  a  very  high  temperature.  The  water 
energetically  tends  to  pass  into  the  state  of  steam, 
and  takes  advantage  of  every  chance  to  burst  forth 
into  the  open  air,  blowing  before  it  the  more  or  less 
broken-up  rock,  or  sending  forth  a  tide  of  molten 
stone  in  the  form  of  lava.  Where  the  energy  of 
eruption  is  great,  this  lava  may  be  blown  into  bits 
so  fine  that  they  will  float  for  a  long  time  in  water, 
or  even  drift  about  in  the  air  iDcfore  coming  to  the 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  41 

ocean  surface ;  and  in  this  way  the  material  is  dis- 
tributed over  a  wide  surface  of  ocean  floor,  and  so 
contributed  to  sedimentary  deposits. 

We  thus  see  that  the  process  of  sedimentation  due 
to  the  accumulation  on  the  sea  floor  of  sediments 
from  the  lands  gives  rise  to  volcanoes.  Although 
the  materials  thrown  out  by  volcanoes  doubtless  con- 
tribute largely  to  the  growth  of  sediments  on  the  sea 
floor,  the  volcano  is  itself  the  product  of  processes 
which  could  not  exist  but  for  the  presence  of  land 
on  the  earth's  surface. 

Let  us  conceive  that  by  some  extraordinary,  we 
may  say  indeed  unexampled,  accident  in  the  earth's 
history  the  continents  were  all  brought  below  the 
level  of  the  sea,  so  that  the  ocean  were  universal. 
The  immediate  effect  would  be  the  destruction  of  all 
land  life  and  the  arrest  of  deposition  of  all  mechani- 
cal sediments,  those  carried  down  in  the  form  of  mud 
by  rivers  or  removed  from  the  shore  by  the  waves. 
For  a  while  the  marine  plants  and  through  them 
the  animals  of  the  sea  would  be  sustained  by  the 
stored  harvest  of  dissolved  matter  contained  in  the 
ocean  waters.  Slowly  the  oceans  would  be  exhausted 
of  the  pabulum  which  maintains  marine  life,  and 
gradually  the  creatures  of  the  sea  would  be  starved 
and  disappear.  A  few  forms  might  maintain  them- 
selves in  the  mud  on  the  ocean  bottom  where  the 
waters  would  take  up  a  certain  amount  of  material  by 
the  process  of  re-solution;  but  the  ocean  floor  would 
J)e  in  a  geologically  short  time  even  more  barren  to 


42  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

life  than  are  the  wastes  of  the  Sahara  or  the  desert 
fields  which  lie  beneath  our  great  lakes,  where  there 
is  but  little  organic  life.  As  all  the  important  phy- 
sical history  of  our  planet  which  is  recorded  in  the 
rocks  has  depended  upon  the  process  of  sedimenta- 
tion, the  world  would  even  in  a  physical  sense  be 
quite  other  than  it  is,  but  for  this  division  into  sea 
and  land. 

It  is  not  only  in  the  physical  development  of  the 
earth's  surface  that  this  division  into  land  and  sea  is 
of  importance ;  it  is  of  even  greater  effect  in  the  his- 
tory of  organic  life.  We  have  already  noted  in  a 
glance  the  fact  that  the  land  life  is  very  much  higher 
than  that  of  the  sea.  All  organic  forms  doubtless 
originated  within  the  waters.  The  roots  of  all  the 
great  genealogical  trees,  the  foundations  of  the  series 
which  lead  up  from  the  basement  of  life  to  the  higher 
organization  exhibited  in  plants  and  animals,  must 
have  found  their  first  station  within  the  waters  of  the 
ocean.  Thus  we  trace  back  the  mammalian  series, 
to  which  we  ourselves  belong,  to  the  fishes.  The 
insects  we  follow  downward  to  the  marine  articu- 
lated animals.  Our  higher  land-plants  are  the  de- 
scendants of  organisms  which  laid  the  foundations  of 
that  life  in  the  sea.  The  ocean  is  indeed  the  cradle 
of  all  the  groups  of  beings  which  have  attained  a 
lofty  structural  or  intellectual  life. 

Although  the  sea  is  the  cradle  of  all  our  organic 
series  which  find  a  place  upon  the  land,  none  of  these 
series  attain  the  highest  degree  of  their  developmem 


NATURE   .\ND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  43 

within  the  oceanic  waters.  It  is  only  on  the  Umd 
that  we  find  the  conditions  which  permit  the  highest 
development  of  life  in  any  of  the  great  chains  of  be- 
ing. The  causes  for  the  limitation  of  the  higher  life 
to  the  land  are  probably  manifold ;  but  there  is  one 
effect  which  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  is 
quite  patent  to  our  understanding.  All  marine  forms, 
except  certain  small  groups  such  as  whales,  which 
have  by  a  process  of  degradation  descended  to  con- 
ditions of  oceanic  life  from  land-inhabiting  ances- 
tors, are  essentially  limited  in  their  breathing  to  the 
air'  which  the  water  may  contain.  Although  the 
ocean  waters  contain  a  good  deal  of  air  in  solution, 
the  quantity  per  cubic  foot  is  only  a  small  portion  of 
that  which  is  present  in  the  atmosphere.  In  order 
to  obtain  a  given  amount  of  respirable  oxygen,  the  fish 
has  to  pass  over  a  given  surface  of  gills  many  times 
as  much  bulk  of  water  as  ^ve  pass  of  air  over  a  like 
area  of  lung  surface.  Now,  it  is  a  well-known  fact 
that  the  energy  of  the  body  depends  upon  the  amount 
of  oxygen  which  can  be  appropriated  to  those  decom- 
positions or  reactions  which  take  place  in  the  process 
of  breathing.  We  may  fairly  say  that  all  animal 
bodies  are  engines  which  depend  on  combustion  for 
the  siq^ply  of  force  required  to  maintain  their  func- 
tions. Therefore  in  breathing  oxygen  from  the  at- 
mosphere, the  land  animal  has  a  very  great  advantage 
over  the  creature  of  the  sea,  due  to  the  rapidity  with 
which  he  can  make  avail  of  this  organic  resource. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  land  animal  has  twentv-fold 


44  NATURE   AND   3IAN  IN  A.AIERICA. 

the  advantage  in  breathing  that  any  marine  creature 
such  as  our  fishes  can  have,  and  tliereby  is  enabled  to 
effect  a  much  more  swift  alteration  in  the  chemical 
constituents  of  its  body,  and  thus  to  secure  the 
energy  requisite  for  the  maintenance  of  its  bodily 
and  intellectual  activities. 

To  win  a  way  from  the  lower  field  of  the  waters  to 
the  higher  level  of  the  land  life  required  time,  vast 
even  in  a  geological  sense,  during  which  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  were  undergoing  a  gradual  transi- 
tion which  might  enable  them  to  meet  the  difficult 
conditions  Avhich  the  land  imposes.  The  animal  or 
plant  in  the  sea  is  generally  secured  from  all  save 
slight  changes  of  temperature.  With  the  exception 
of  the  whales  and  a  few  other  forms  which  have 
descended  from  the  land  into  the  sea  by  a  process  of 
retrograde  change,  all  the  marine  species  are,  as  we 
express  it,  cold-blooded;  that  is,  they  depend  upon 
the  element  in  which  they  live  for  their  temperature. 
In  general  the  temperature  of  the  sea,  excepting  the 
more  superficial  layers  of  water,  is  singularly  invari- 
a1)le.  The  facts  already  noted,  such  as  the  limita- 
tion in  the  extension  of  the  blue-fish,  as  well  as 
many  experiments  in  marine  aquaria,  show  us  that 
marine  forms  are  very  intolerant  of  changes  in  tem- 
perature of  the  medium  in  which  they  live.  In  order 
to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  land  in  a  successful 
manner,  at  least  in  regions  which  are  subject  to  any 
considerable  changes  of  temperature,  the  higher 
vertebrates  had  to  invent  the  warm  blood  which  we 


NATURE   AND  xMAN   IN  AMERICA.  45 

find  in  birds  and  mammals.  This  invention  was 
attained  slowly  and  with  difficulty;  for  not  only  had 
the  circulation  to  be  contrived,  a  system  of  lungs  in 
place  of  gills,  but  a  protecting  covering  to  retain  the 
heat,  such  as  hair  or  feathers,  had  to  be  arranged ;  or 
if  the  creatures  were  destitute  of  such  protection  as 
are  our  serpents,  habits  had  to  be  invented  to  enable 
them  to  lie  dormant  during  the  winter  season  at 
some  depth  beneath  the  surface  where  they  would  be 
protected  from  frost. 

AVe  are  aware  how^  quickly  all  our  marine  forms 
dry  and  become  shrunken  when  exposed  to  the  at- 
mosphere. This  is  because  their  skins  are  unfitted 
to  resist  the  dryness  of  the  air;  the  water  of  the 
body  pours  through  them  and  evaporates  into  the 
atmosphere,  thus  quickly  bringing  about  the  death 
of  the  creature.  The  invention  of  the  air-proof 
covering,  the  beautifully  contrived  skin,  which  re- 
tains the  moisture  of  our  bodies,  was  also  attained 
Avith  difficulty.  The  same  is  the  case  with  eggs  of 
our  marine  animals.  They,  too,  quickly  desiccate 
when  exposed  to  the  air.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that 
the  eggs  of  our  birds  and  insects  are  provided  with 
either  a  tough  or  solid  envelope,  which  serves  to  re 
tain  the  fluids  until  they  have  been  absorbed  by  the 
young  creature.  In  the  case  of  plants  the  process  of 
preparation  for  land  life  was  almost  equally  difficult. 
All  the  higher  forms  of  aerial  vegetation  depend  upon 
the  roots  for  water  supply.  In  the  marine  form  the 
plant   is   completely  enveloped   in  water,    and   may 


46  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

take  its  supply  of  food  through  any  part  of  its  sur- 
face. Upon  the  land  the  plant  has  invented  the  con- 
trivances of  the  root,  by  which  a  portion  of  the  body 
is  pushed  down  into  the  water-bearing  portions  of 
the  soil,  and  there  obtains  the  solid  or  ashy  parts  of 
its  structure  in  substantially  the  same  manner  as  it 
did  in  the  sea. 

After  life  had  found  its  way  from  the  sea  in  the 
lower  forms  of  terrestrial  beings  to  the  surface  of  the 
continents,  a  vast  series  of  changes  had  to  come  about 
in  order  to  lead  upward  from  the  creatures  which  had 
just  risen  above  the  marine  functions  to  the  higher 
forms  which  now  inhabit  the  land.  Between  the  earli- 
est land  ancestors  of  man  and  his  present  state,  there 
have  been  very  numerous  stages  in  the  process  of  dc 
velopment,  each  requiring  a  long  time  for  its  ince])- 
tion  and  completion.  A  thousand  years  was  but  a  day 
in  the  vast  series  of  experiments  which  have  led  to 
our  more  perfect  land  animals.  If  at  any  stage  in 
this  process  the  lands  had  been  generally  submerged 
beneath  the  sea,  all  their  inhabitants  would  have 
been  destroyed.  The  paleontological  records,  the 
chronicles  of  the  great  stone-book  where  the  stages 
of  the  organic  series  are  written  in  the  unmistak- 
able characters  of  fossils,  show  us  clearly  that  no 
such  general  interruption  in  the  progress  of  the  land 
life  has  ever  taken  place.  From  the  organic  remains 
of  our  rocks  Ave  are  justified  in  the  assertion  that 
since  the  time  when  life  began  to  adapt  itself  to  con- 
tinental conditions,  there  has  been  no  destruction  of 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  47 

these  fields  of  its  higher  development.  We  there- 
fore may  assume  that  our  continents  are  great  per- 
manences. They  change  their  form,  —  now  a  portion 
bending  downward  beneath  the  sea,  while  another 
part  emerges  from  the  waters ;  but  all  the  changes 
which  they  undergo  are  made  in  such  a  manner  that 
swaying  to  and  fro,  abandoning  the  sunken  parts 
and  moving  into  the  newly  elevated  areas,  the  land 
life  has  always  been  provided  with  its  appropriate 
station. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  the  point  in  our  inquiries 
concerning  the  nature  of  life  where  we  must  consider 
the  conditions  of  these  continental  movements  in- 
volved in  the  creation  and  development  of  the  land 
areas.  We  must  see  how  the  vast  and  apparently 
rude  machinery  which  has  created  the  lands  has 
operated  so  as  not  to  endanger  this  frail  organic  life. 

So  far  the  formation  of  continents  has  formed  a 
stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  geological  theory. 
There  has  been  a  great  variety  of  hypotheses  framed 
to  account  for  their  formation;  but  none  of  them 
have  proved  very  satisfactory.  I  propose  now  to  set 
forth  an  hypothesis  of  continental  growth,  which 
seems  to  me  to  meet  the  principal  difficulties  which 
we  encounter  in  the  endeavor  to  frame  a  theory  for 
their  origin.  I  have  attained  this  conception  mainly 
by  a  study  of  the  distribution  of  mountains. 

It  seems  to  me  evident  that  mountains  are  phe- 
nomena which  are  limited  to  the  surface  of  the  con- 
tinental  folds,    and   this  for   the  following  reason; 


48  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN    AMERICA. 

namely,  if  we  consider  the  distribution  of  the  known 
mountains  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  we  find  that 
they  exist  on  all  the  continents.  No  very  large 
field  of  land,  however  level  its  surface,  appears  to  be 
without  these  foldings  of  the  underlying  rocks.  Even 
where  the  dislocations  do  not  manifest  themselves  in 
the  striking  irregularities  of  the  surface,  we  often 
find  that  they  exist  in  the  structure  of  the  rocks. 
Thus,  eastern  Massachusetts  is  destitute  of  high 
mountains.  Wachusett,  the  loftiest  peak,  rises  only 
a  little  over  two  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  The  greater  part  of  the  area  of  southeastern 
New  England  is  a  rough  plain- land,  only  slightly 
broken  by  irregular  prominences  a  few  hundred  feet 
in  altitude;  but  the  geological  structure  of  the  coun- 
try shows  clearly  that  great  mountains  once  existed 
in  this  district.  It  is  likely  that  if  we  could  go 
back  of  the  Jurassic  period,  we  should  find  several 
ranges  in  this  section  having  a  height  of  many  thou- 
sand feet,  perhaps,  indeed,  with  the  relief  of  Alpine 
elevations.  There  can,  in  a  word,  be  no  question 
that  mountain-building  is  the  ordinary  if  not  a  neces- 
sary condition  in  all  continental  growth,  for  the  rea- 
son that  there  are  no  continents  without  mountains. 

A  little  further  inquiry  shows  us  that  the  height 
of  the  continents  is  proportionate  to  the  amount  of 
mountain  growth  which  has  taken  place  in  different 
parts  of  their  fields.  Thus,  the  central  portion  of 
Asia,  where  mountain -building  has  been  very  active, 
has  its  surface  much  above  the  level  of  any  other 


NATURE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  49 

continent;  and  in  general  we  may  say  that  the  ele- 
vation of  the  continent  is  roughly  proportionate  to  the 
amount  of  mountain-building  which  has  taken  place 
upon  it. 

Turning  now  to  the  height  of  mountains,  we  find 
on  the  earth's  surface  numerous  peaks  which  exceed 
fifteen  thousand  feet  in  altitude.  It  is  probable  that 
all  the  continental  masses,  except  Australia,  have 
numerous  elevations  which  exceed  this  altitude.  In 
Asia  peaks  of  this  height  are  to  be  numbered  by  the 
hundred.  Bearing  this  fact  in  mind,  let  us  turn  our 
attention  to  the  question  of  whether  mountains  exist 
on  the  sea  floor.  The  first  point  to  notice  is  that  the 
deeper  seas — that  is,  those  parts  more  than  a  few 
hundred  miles  from  the  continental  border  —  have  an 
average  dapth  of  about  fifteen  thousand  feet.  If, 
therefore,  mountains  develop  on  the  sea  floor  as 
freely  as  they  do  upon  the  land,  we  should  expect  to 
lind  the  deeper  seas,  which  occupy  more  than  two 
thirds  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  scattered  over  with 
these  lofty  elevations.  There  should  be  hundreds  if 
not  thousands  of  islands  formed  by  mountain  peaks 
which  came  to  the  surface  of  the  waters.  The  fact 
is  that  save  just  along  the  shore-lines,  or,  in  other 
words,  Avithin  the  limits  of  the  submerged  portion  of 
the  continental  folds,  there  are  no  mountains  what- 
soever. The  occasional  isles  which  break  the  sur- 
face of  the  deeper  oceans  consist  either  of  volcanic 
cones  or  of  coralline  accumulations,  which  in  most 
cases   appear   to  have    been  constructed  upon    the 

4 


50  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

crusts  of  submerged  volcanoes.  Thus,  from  a  simple 
inspection  of  the  distribution  of  mountains,  we  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  do  not  appear  to  grow  on 
the  sea  floor  as  they  do  upon  the  surface  of  the 
lands. 

This  consideration  concerning  the  growth  of  moun- 
tains on  the  sea  floor  becomes  the  more  striking  when 
we  consider  that  while  a  mountain  growing  in  the 
air  from  the  surface  of  the  lands  is  subject  to  con- 
stant down-wearing,  and  is  continually  losing  height 
by  the  action  of  atmospheric  agents  of  erosion,  no 
such  effect  would  take  place  on  the  submarine  moun- 
tain until  it  came  to  the  level  where  it  would  be 
open  to  the  assaults  of  the  waves.  Our  land  moun- 
tains have  in  almost  all  cases  lost  a  large  part  of 
their  height  by  the  action  of  erosive  agents.  Thus 
Ramsay  has  computed  that  in  the  case  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Wales  at  least  forty  thousand  feet  of  rocks 
have  been  taken  from  their  summits  as  they  slowly 
grew  upward.  So,  too,  with  the  Alps,  if  we  prolong 
their  curves  so  as  to  restore  in  our  diagrams  the 
parts  which  have  disappeared  in  the  battle  with  the 
rain  and  ice,  we  find  the  vast  reliefs  which  have  been 
worn  away.  In  places  ten  to  twenty  thousand  feet 
of  strata  have  been  thus  removed  from  the  summits 
of  these  elevations. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  our  mountains  at  any 
one  time  had  such  prodigious  heights  as  they  would 
exhibit  if  we  restored  to  their  summits  all  the  mate- 
rials which  had  been  worn  away  from  them.     It  is 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  51 

probable  that  the  greater  elevations  now  existing-  on 
the  earth's  surface  extend  upward  as  far  as  moun- 
tains have  ever  done  in  any  state  of  the  earth's  his- 
tory. The  fact  is  that  these  elevations  have  worn  as 
they  have  grown ;  indeed,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter, 
the  wearing  is  probably  a  condition  of  the  growth. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  if  the  mountains  grew 
upon  the  sea  floor  at  anything  like  the  rate  that  they 
build  their  arches  under  the  air,  we  should  find 
peaks  on  the  submarine  ridges  at  least  quite  as  nu- 
merous as  they  are  upon  the  land;  and,  as  before 
remarked,  they  are  conspicuous  by  their  absence  in 
that  portion  of  the  earth  which  is  occupied  by  the 
wide  oceans. 

Submarine  soundings  show  us  that  there  are  many 
irregularities  on  the  sea  floor,  which  in  their  form 
have  appeared  to  some  naturalists  mountain-like. 
Thus,  in  the  central  portion  of  the  Atlantic,  as  well 
as  in  other  seas  and  oceans,  the  sounding  lead  has 
detected  a  number  of  sharp  ridges  which  do  not  ex- 
tend to  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  a  hasty  judg- 
ment has  led  some  observers  to  the  conclusion  that 
such  are  submarine  mountains;  but  in  all  cases  it 
appears  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  these  eleva- 
tions are  in  their  nature  volcanic  than  to  assume  that 
they  are  such  arches  of  the  crust  as  constitute  true 
mountains.  In  the  case  of  the  Atlantic  ridge,  we 
have  at  its  northern  extremity  unmistakable  vol- 
canoes in  the  region  of  Iceland,  and  the  Azores 
afford  similar  evidence  in  the  south.     We  may  fairly 


52  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

presume  that  the  intermediate  elevations  commonly 
haA'e  the  same  volcanic  character. 

From  considerations  such  as  these,  which  might  be 
greatly  extended,  we  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
mountains  are  essentially  limited  to  the  continental 
masses;  while  volcanoes,  that  other  type  of  great 
elevations  on  the  earth's  surface,  are  normally  devel- 
oped on  the  sea  floors  or  in  the  narrow  belt  of  land 
about  the  margins  of  the  greater  ocean  basins. 
Having  established  the  proposition  that  mountains 
are  land  phenomena,  that  is,  in  some  way  connected 
with  continents,  we  are  forced  by  logical  con- 
siderations to  the  hypothesis  that  they  are  in  some 
way  causatively  connected  with  land  growth;  either 
mountains  are  the  effect  of  continental  growth,  or 
continents  are  produced  by  mountain-growing,  or  the 
two  are  the  effect  of  a  common  cause.  In  one  or  the 
other  of  these  modes  of  action  we  must  seek  the 
cause  of  mountainous  elevations.  I  propose  now  to 
set  forth  a  view  concerning  mountain-building  which 
is  founded  on  the  foregoing  considerations. 

Geologists  have  already  noticed  the  fact  that  each 
important  mountain  elevation  usually  consists  of  two 
parts,  —  first,  the  sharply  flexed  strata  which  compose 
the  mountain  proper ;  and  next,  a  sort  of  pedestal  or 
foundation  of  uplifted  strata  which  lies  on  either  side 
of  the  mountain  ranges,  and  sometimes  exists  in  the 
form  of  mountain-walled  table-lands  in  the  midst  of 
the  sharply  flexed  rocks.  Thus,  if  we  journey  from 
the  Mississippi  River  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains, 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  53 

we  find  that  our  path  rises  steadily  upward  over  the 
surface  of  massively  upborne  rocks,  not  folded  into  the 
mountainous  form,  until  when  we  come  within  sight  of 
the  mountain  walls  of  the  Cordilleras  we  have  at- 
tained a  height  of  five  or  six  thousand  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  This  great  eastward-sloping  table- 
land of  the  Cordilleran  system  extends  along  the 
greater  part  of  its  eastern  flank  from  the  extreme 
north  to  the  far  south  of  the  American  continent. 
Only  in  the  region  of  Central  America,  where  the 
elevations  diminish  in  height,  is  it  inconspicuous. 
In  the  isthmus  proper,  where  the  mountain  folds  are 
for  a  short  distance  wanting,  it  nearly  or  altogether 
disappears. 

In  the  Appalachian  district  of  elevations  we  have, 
both  on  the  eastern  and  western  slopes  of  the  range, 
more  or  less  distinct  evidence  of  similar  uplifts  of 
the  strata,  which  bear  about  the  same  proportion  to 
the  total  height  of  the  mountains  as  do  the  greater 
table-lands  built  on  the  east  of  the  Cordilleras.  The 
continent  of  North  America  appears  to  be  in  the 
main  composed  of  these  massive  elevations,  which 
have  grown  proportionately  with  the  growth  of  the 
more  dislocated  strata  which  have  folded  into  the 
true  mountain-built  attitude.  In  other  continental 
areas  mountains  generally  exhibit  very  much  the 
same  type  of  structure.  Thus  in  the  Italian  penin- 
sula, where  a  range  of  low  mountains  projects  far 
southward  into  the  Mediterranean,  we  find  the  prom- 
ontory consisting  in  part  of  table-land  elevation,  — 


54  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

that  is,  of  rocks  uplifted  witliout  ilexiire,  —  and  in 
part  of  flexed  rocks  or  true  mountains.  Although  our 
knowledge  of  the  reliefs  of  the  earth  is  not  sufficient  to 
enable  us  to  assert  that  this  is  an  invariable  feature, 
all  that  has  been  observed  warrants  the  conclusion 
that  the  process  of  mountain -building  is  usually  at- 
tended by  the  formation  of  table-land  elevation,  and 
that  the  continental  masses,  apart  from  the  portion 
of  the  areas  which  are  involved  in  the  mountain 
folds,  is  in  the  main  made  up  of  these  massive  up- 
lifts on  the  crest  of  which  the  mountains  develop. 
We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  the  processes  which 
lead  to  mountain  growth  with  the  view  of  determin- 
ing wdiether  we  may  not  find  in  these  processes  a 
means  whereby  we  may  account  for  the  growth  of  the 
great  land-masses. 

Geologists  have  very  generally  considered  that 
mountain  flexures  as  well  as  the  larger  foldings  of 
the  continents  on  which  they  rest  are  due  to  the  loss 
of  heat  in  the  deeper  parts  of  the  earth.  We  know, 
by  actual  experiment  from  mines  and  deep  well- 
borings  as  well  as  by  observing  hot  springs  and  vol- 
canoes, that  the  earth  is  hot  in  its  greater  depths, 
far  hotter  than  it  is  in  the  outer  i)arts.  We  further- 
more know  that  a  body  in  cooling  necessarily  loses 
most  heat  in  the  parts  which  are  hottest,  for  the  very 
simple  reason  that  in  those  regions  there  is  the  most 
heat  to  lose.  The  outer  portion  of  the  earth,  from 
an  early  age  bathed  in  the  cold  of  the  celestial 
spaces,  where  the  temperature  is  some  hundreds  of 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IX  AMERICA.  55 

degrees  below  zero  Fahrenheit,  long  ago  lost  the 
most  of  its  oi^iginal  temperature.  The  heat  of  the 
depths  of  the  sphere  has  been  hindered  in  its  escape 
by  the  non-conductive  nature  of  the  outer  crust,  and 
has  therefore  slowly  flowed  away.  Each  day  there 
escapes  from  the  deeper  parts  of  the  earth  enough 
heat  to  melt  a  number  of  cubic  miles  of  ice ;  prob- 
ably somewhere  between  twenty  and  two  hundred 
cubic  miles  of  ice  would  be  converted  into  water 
by  the  daily  outflow  of  the  temperature.  We  know 
furthermore  that  the  earth's  interior  must  be  com- 
posed of  materials  which  shrink  in  cooling;  there- 
fore we  have  to  believe  that  the  central  parts  of  the 
earth  are  always  diminishing  in  bulk  from  the  loss 
of  heat,  while  the  outer  parts  contract  but  little. 

The  most  of  the  loss  of  volume  due  to  the  escape 
of  heat  is  in  the  deeper  parts  of  the  earth,  very 
little  of  it  occurring  in  the  relatively  cool  outer 
rocks.  In  consequence  of  this  refrigeration  the  in- 
ternal mass  tends  to  withdraw  from  the  outer  shell 
toward' the  centre;  but  as  this  outer  shell  is  ex- 
tremely heavy,  being  many  miles  in  thickness  and 
composed  of  compact  material,  it  necessarily  follows 
that  the  shrinkage  of  the  deeper  parts  takes  place 
step  by  step,  never  allowing  any  interspaces  between 
the  outer  and  the  inner  part  to  form.  The  result  of 
the  contraction  of  this  internal  region,  while  the  ex- 
ternal does  not  contract,  is  necessarily  a  folding  of 
the  ci'ust  or  some  other  movement  which  will  per- 
mit the  adjustment  of  the  rocks,  which  is  evidently 


56  NATURE   AND  MAX  IN   A.MERICA. 

required.  If  the  earth's  outer  part  were  of  perfectly 
amorphous  rock,  without  any  lines  of  weakness,  —  if 
it  were,  in  a  word,  throughout  composed  of  crystal- 
line material  such  as  we  find  in  a  coherent  mass 
of  granite,  —  the  probable  effect  of  this  internal 
contraction  upon  the  outer  part  would  be  simply  to 
crush  it  into  fine  bits,  which  would  then  creep  over 
one  another,  and  so  effect  the  movement  necessary  to 
relieve  the  strain  caused  by  the  contractions  of  the 
deeper  portions  of  the  sphere.  In  this  case  we  should 
probably  have  no  distinct  mountain  ridges,  but  only 
at  most  irregular  bulgings  of  the  earth's  surface; 
but  in  fact  all  the  rocks  we  know,  certainly  all  for  a 
score  or  two  of  miles  below  the  crust,  have  lines  of 
weakness  which  favor  some  particular  form  of  moun- 
tain-building under  the  strains  which  we  are  now 
considering. 

The  greater  part  of  the  known  rocks  have  more 
or  less  stratification  or  bedding,  —  some  remnant 
of  the  division  into  horizontal  planes  which  charac- 
terizes all  rocks  when  they  are  laid  down  upon 
the  sea  floor.  Even  our  apparently  massive  depos- 
its, such  as  the  granites,  are  divided  by  joint  planes, 
and  in  certain  cases  retain  a  part  of  their  original 
stratification  in  their  structure.  The  result  is  that 
under  the  pressure  brought  about  by  contraction, 
these  rocks  flex  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the 
leaves  of  a  book  when  they  are  urged  together  by 
lateral  pressure.  The  yielding  where  the  rocks  are 
thin-bedded  may  be  easy,  as  in  the  case  of  these  sheets 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  57 

of  paper,  and  give  rise  to  innumerable  slight  folds, 
which  in  turn  are  folded  into  larger  folds ;  the  sec- 
ondary folds  accumulate  into  yet  greater  flexures, 
and  so  slaty  rocks  often  become  snarled  almost  as  a 
tangled  skein  of  thread  by  the  tortuous  pressures  to 
which  they  have  been  subjected.  Massive  thick- 
bedded  rocks,  such  as  the  sandstones,  exhibit  less 
considerable  though  manifest  flexing  under  these 
strains ;  and  so  we  find  that  the  extent  to  which  fold- 
ing is  effected  is  in  a  way  rudely  proportionate  to  the 
extent  to  which  divisional  planes  favor  the  move- 
ments by  which  the  rocks  are  crumpled  into  moun- 
tainous forms. 

The  continent  of  North  America,  especially  in  the 
Appalachian  system  of  dislocations,  exhibits  all 
grades  of  the  effect  produced  by  mountain-building 
forces  on  rocks  of  diverse  resistance  to  strain.  Thus 
in  the  Xarragansett  basin  of  Rhode  Island,  where  a 
great  part  of  the  strata  are  of  soft  shales  formed 
during  the  Carboniferous  period,  the  thin  pliant  beds 
entangled  in  the  old  mountain  arches,  the  projecting 
ridges  of  which  have  been  entirely  worn  away,  ex- 
hibit a  surprising  complication  of  folding ;  while  in 
the  same  area  certain  massive  conglomerates,  beds 
of  closely  cemented  pebbles  having  united  layers 
forty  or  fifty  feet  thick  and  almost  without  stratifica- 
tion planes,  are  hardly  thrown  from  their  original 
attitudes  by  the  pressures  which  have  so  complicated 
the  more  yielding  strata.  Studying  the  section  from 
central  Tennessee,  through  the  mountains  of  eastern 


58  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Tennessee  and  western  North  Carolina,  we  find  that 
the  millstone  grit  of  central  Tennessee,  which  has  a 
thickness  of  two  or  three  thousand  feet  and  is  very 
massive  bedded,  has  hardl}^  yielded  at  all  to  the 
pressures  which  have  violently  disturbed  the  thin- 
ner bedded  rocks  which  lie  in  the  valley  of  the 
Holston  River. 

We  may  therefore  regard  our  mountains  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  internal  strains  arising  from  contractions 
acting  upon  the  rocks  provided  with  divisional 
plains,  and  therefore  fitted  as  are  the  leaves  of  a 
book,  or  a  series  of  pasteboard  sheets,  to  fold  under 
the  action  of  compressive  forces. 

When  mountain-building  forces  operate  upon  a 
section  of  the  earth's  crust  which  is  favorably  sit- 
uated for  folding,  they  tend  to  lift  the  rocks  into 
great  billowy  arches,  the  crests  of  which  are  in  a 
general  way  parallel  to  each  otlier.  We  may  observe 
many  familiar  instances  of  similar  movements  in  our 
ordinary  experiences.  Wherever  materials  used  in 
the  arts  are  in  any  way  caused  to  swell  or  enlarge  by 
taking  in  moisture  or  by  the  increase  of  heat,  we 
find  that  they  assume  this  form.  Thus  the  asphalt 
on  our  sidewalks  when  expanded  by  the  summer 
heat  is  cast  into  ridges.  So,  too,  a  thin  sheet  of 
wood  placed  on  the  floor  in  the  shape  of  veneering 
will  at  times  take  in  moisture  and  warp  into  small 
ridges;  even  the  ice  in  our  ponds  forming  at 
very  low  temperatures  and  afterward  expanding  in 
warmer  weather,    often  forms   sharp,    mountain-like 


NATUKE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  59 

ridges  around  the  shores,  —  elevations  which  are  de- 
veloped by  the  pressure  which  the  enlarged  ice  exerts 
against  the  shore.  Ice  is  a  substance  of  proverbial 
brittleness,  more  brittle  indeed  than  any  of  our 
rocks ;  and  yet,  as  we  perceive,  when  in  thin  sheets  or 
in  many  cases  an  aggregation  of  thin  sheets  produced 
by  successive  freezing  and  thawing,  it  readily  flexes 
under  the  action  of  continuous,  slowly  operating,  and 
powerful  pressure. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  takes  place  when  a 
mountain-fold  is  uplifted  into  the  form  of  an  elon- 
gated dome  such  as  we  find  exhibited  in  normal 
mountain-built  countries,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
Alleghanies  of  Pennsylvania.  We  see  that  the  ten- 
dency must  be  to  form  a  great  cavity  beneath  the 
ridge  of  the  mountain,  a  hollow  arch,  which  if  left 
open  would  have  perhaps  a.  height  of  a  mile  or  more, 
a  width  of  four  or  five  miles,  and  a  length  of  a  score 
or  two  of  miles,  while  the  uplifted  mass  of  rock 
would  have  a  thickness  of  several  thousand  feet. 
We  know  by  well -ascertained  facts  that  no  such  cavity 
can  actually  be  created,  for  none  of  our  rocks  are  strong 
enough  to  support  themselves  in  such  attitudes  as  the 
supposition  implies.  If  we  could  by  any  contrivance 
produce  a  hollow  space  of  this  nature,  the  weight  of 
the  superincumbent  material  would  inevitably  crush 
the  rocks  into  powder,  and  the  mass  would  disappear 
in  the  cavity  in  the  form  of  comminuted  rock.  We 
therefore  must  believe  that  in  all  cases  this  space  is 
filled  in  with  material  which  is  forced  into  it  as  the 


60  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

arch  above  is  formed.  This  coiichisioii  does  not  rest 
upon  theory  ah^ne.  We  have  in  our  worn-do'>vn 
mountains  amply  sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  the 
conckisions  that  in  all  cases  the  domes  of  these  ele- 
vations are  supported  by  rocky  matter  squeezed  from 
below  or  from  the  sides  into  the  space. 

Taking  the  natural  sections  of  the  mountain  arches, 
Ave  commonly  find  that  granites  or  similar  rocks  have 
been  packed  in  beneath  the  upcurve  so  as  to  support 
the  rising  mountain  at  every  stage  of  its  upward 
growth.  It  appears  indeed,  in  all  cases  where  we 
can  get  a  clear  view  of  the  facts,  that  this  incoming 
of  matter  which  underpins  a  mountain  is  usually 
greater  in  quantity  than  is  required  to  support  the 
arch.  It  in  a  measure  serves  also  to  uplift  the 
unarched  stratified  beds  on  either  side  of  the  ridges 
so  that  they  lie  at  a  higher  level  than  they  would  have 
were  it  not  for  this  material  which  is  forced  iii  be- 
neath the  dome.  There  can  be  no  question  that  the 
elevation  of  the  table-land  or  unfolded  rocks  on 
either  side  of  the  mountain  arch  is  a  concomitant  of 
this  movement  of  the  deep-seated  and  softer  rocks  of 
the  crust,  softened  because  of  their  heated  condition, 
toward  mountain  upcurves;  for  wherever  we  get  a 
section  through  the  table-land,  we  find  that  this 
elevation  is  also  supported  by  a  similar  underpin- 
ning of  material,  which  we  may  fairly  suppose  to 
have  moved  on  beneath  it  concurrently  with  the 
mountain-folding.  Therefore  we  may  advance  a 
step  in  our  definition  of  mountain  elevations.     "We 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  61 

may  now  say  that  they  usually  consist  of  foldings  in 
the  more  flexible  outer  parts  of  the  earth's  crust, 
which  are  supported  by  deeper-lying  unstratified  ma- 
terial which  has  been  softened  by  heat,  and  thereb}', 
though  perhaps  not  exactly  fluid,  enabled  to  flow  in 
beneath  the  mountain  curves.  We  may  say,  further, 
that  this  underpinning  material  was  not  only  forced 
in  beneath  the  mountain  arches,  but  also  accumu- 
lated to  a  great  extent  beneath  the  beds  on  either 
side  which  have  not  been  flexed  by  the  mountain- 
building  pressures. 

If  the  continents  are  made  up  of  an  aggregation  of 
mountain  pedestals,  and  if  the  development  of  these 
pedestals  is  due  to  mountain  growth,  then  we  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  continents  are  essentially  ele- 
vations of  the  crust  formed  as  the  concomitant  of 
mountain-building.  All  the  facts  now  known  con- 
cerning the  relation  of  continents  and  mountains 
serve  to  affirm  this  hypothesis.  We  have  seen  that 
there  are  no  continents  without  mountains,  and  evi- 
dently no  mountains  similar  to  those  on  the  land 
surface  on  the  deep-sea  floors.  If  any  mountains 
exist  in  those  great  hidden  fields,  they  must  be  so 
unlike  he  ridges  we  know  on  the  earth's  surface  that 
they  do  not  deserve  to  be  classed  with  them.  Any 
further  analysis  of  the  facts  we  have  already  given 
would  carry  us  too  far  from  the  substance  of  our  in- 
quiry. Although  it  is  not  in  a  scientific  sense  le- 
gitimate to  assume  that  all  continental  growth  is 
effected  as  a  concomitant  of  mountain-lniilding,   the 


62  NATURE   ANB  MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

facts  appear  to  me  to  be  sufficient  to  warrant  the 
assertion  that  the  portions  of  the  continental  masses 
above  the  level  of  the  sea  are  in  the  main,  if  not  al- 
together, the  concomitant  of  mountain  growth. 

It  may  appear  at  first  sight  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  material  beneath  the  mountain  arches 
is  as  free  to  move  into  the  arches  of  the  uplifts  as 
our  supposition  requires.  The  geologist,  however, 
knows  many  facts  which  go  to  show  that  at  a  little 
depth  beneath  the  crust,  in  the  outer  verge  of  those 
high  temperatures  which  exist  in  the  earth's  interior, 
rocky  matter  in  a  state  of  more  or  less  complete 
fusion  is  able  to  move  with  exceeding  ease  for  great 
distances  beneath  the  crust.  The  best  evidence  we 
find  of  such  ready  subterranean  movement  of  the 
materials  in  the  earth's  depths  is  afforded  by  vol- 
canic ejections.  A  volcano  is  essentially  a  steam- jet, 
and  the  steam  almost  certainly  is  derived  from  water 
buried  in  the  rocks  at  the  time  of  their  formation. 

The  quantity  of  matter  extruded  by  a  volcano  is 
very  great.  We  get  an  inadequate  sense  of  its  mass 
from  the  cones  which  are  accumulated  about  the 
point  of  ejection.  Thus  in  the  case  of  ^tna,  —  a  vol- 
cano, vast  though  it  is,  of  the  second  order  of  magni- 
tude in  terrestrial  cones,  —  we  find  in  and  around  the 
elevation  a  mass  of  ejected  rocky  material  which 
amounts  in  volume  to  somewhere  near  one  thousand 
cubic  miles;  yet  this  prodigious  mass  of  matter  is 
only  a  small  part  of  that  which  has  been  ejected 
from   the   vent.     The   larger   part   of   the   ejections 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AxMERICA.  63 

from  a  volcano  are  probably  in  the  shape  of  water  and 
other  vapors  which  pass  away  into  the  air.  Of  the 
solid  or  earthy  matter  thrown  out,  a  very  great, 
probably  in  most  cases  by  far  the  larger,  part  is  in 
the  form  of  fine  dust,  which  floats  away  for  great 
distances,  often  darkening  the  air  over  a  wide  field. 
Thus  in  the  case  of  Vesuvius,  in  two  different  erup- 
tions the  skies  at  Constantinople  had  at  midday  a 
midnight  darkness,  owing  to  the  large  quantities  of 
dust  drifted  away  from  that  cone,  beclouding  the  air 
for  a  thousand  miles  from  the  point  of  ejection. 
The  great  eruption  of  Krakatoa  so  charged  the  earth's 
atmosphere  with  dust  that  for  two  or  three  years  our 
sunsets  and  sunrises  were  made  to  glow  by  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  light  from  the  suspended  matter.  It 
seems  likely  from  certain  computations  which  rest 
upon  approximate  data  that  in  the  case  of  ^tna, 
somewhere  about  four  thousand  cubic  miles  of  mat- 
ter must  have  been  ejected  during  the  brief  geological 
history  of  that  cone,  —  a  history  which  extends  back 
only  to  the  early  stages  of  the  Tertiary  period,  or  as 
we  may  say  to  the  geological  yesterday. 

As  all  the  rocky  materials  blown  out  from  the 
crater  of  ^tna  are  surcharged  with  water,  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  it  comes  from  no  very  great  depth  in 
the  earth's  interior.  It  appears  necessary  to  sup- 
pose that  it  is  from  that  part  of  the  crust  which  has 
been  laid  down  on  old  sea  floors,  and  buried  for  a 
few  miles  in  the  depths  of  the  earth  by  subsequently 
formed  accumulations  of  rocks.     All  the  evidence  is 


64  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

against  the  supposition  that  fche  ejected  substances 
come  from  the  central  portions  of  the  earth.  We 
thus  have  the  surprising  fact  that  from  a  vent  such 
as  we  are  considering,  there  may  be  discharged  in 
the  course  of  a  few  geological  periods  an  amount  of 
matter  sufficient  to  cover  the  whole  of  Massachusetts 
and  Rhode  Island  to  the  depth  of  nearly  half  a  mile. 
It  would  appear  a  natural  consequence  of  this  vast 
removal  of  matter  from  the  crust  that  the  roots  of 
the  volcano  would  sink  downward  and  come  to  oc- 
cupy a  great  concavity.  The  fact  is,  however,  that 
notwithstanding  this  vast  discharge  of  lava,  ash,  and 
steam  through  the  vent  of  J^tna,  the  surface  on 
which  the  volcano  rests  has  been  gradually  uplifted 
since  the  time  when  the  crater  began  to  cast  forth 
its  materials.  It  has  actually  risen  to  the  height  of 
a  thousand  feet  or  more  above  the  original  level 
which  it  occupied.  This  elevation  of  the  basement 
of  a  volcano  coincidently  with  the  throwing  out  of  a 
vast  amount  of  material  which  presumably  is  not 
taken  from  great  depths  within  the  earth,  but  comes 
trom  its  more  superficial  parts,  is  not  a  peculiar  feat- 
ure of  ^Etna.  It  may  be  observed  in  many  volcanic 
districts,  and  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that  it  is  a 
frequent  concomitant  of  eruptions. 

Tlie  only  way  in  which  we  can  account  for  the  uj)- 
rising  of  the  basis  of  a  volcanic  cone  or  even  for  the 
failure  of  the  region  to  subside,  is  by  the  supposition 
that  the  materials  which  are  discharged  from  the 
vent   migrate  horizontally  beneath  the  crust  of  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  65 

earth  for  great  distances  toward  the  point  of  escape, 
driven  to  their  movement  by  the  action  of  expanding 
vapors,  principally  that  of  steam. 

It  is  not  in  our  way  to  inquire  further  into  the 
peculiar  phenomena  of  volcanic  action;  but  these 
wonderful  features  in  the  physiography  of  the  earth 
serve  to  show  us  that  such  a  hypothesis  of  the  migra- 
tion of  rocky  matter  as  is  required  in  the  supposition 
concerning  the  growth  of  continents  and  mountains 
is  not  irrelevant,  but  may  he  fairly  assumed  in  the 
development  of  our  hypothesis. 

Having  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  our  theory  as 
to  the  formation  of  the  continental  elevations,  we 
may  next  proceed  to  consider  the  process  of  land 
growth  and  its  relation  to  the  development  of  the  life 
which  has  thereby  been  provided  with  a  theatre  for 
its  evolution.  We  may  thus  hope  to  see  something 
of  the  order  in  the  evolution  of  geographic  features 
which  has  controlled  the  development  of  organic  life. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Permanence  of  Continents  ;  Evidence  that  their  Areas  have  been  Sea  Floors. 

—  Evidence  of  slow  Growth  of  Mountains.  —  Proof  that  the  Continents 
are  ancient.  —  Evidence  from  Organic  Life  ;  from  the  Physical  Structure 
of  Sediments.  —  Devonian  Black  Shale.  — Continental  Shelf  ;  Conditions 
of  its  Formation. — Progressive  Advance  in  Development  of  the  Conti- 
nent from  Cambrian  Time  to  the  present  Day.  — Successive  Positions  of 
Shore-line. — Variations  in  the  Form  of  Continent;  Subsidence  during 
Glacial  Period  in  Northern  Portion  ;  corresponding  Uplift  in  Southern 
Portion.  — Evidence  from  the  West  Indies  Islands  ;  from  Florida   Rocks 

—  Summary. 


Our  preliminary  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  con- 
tinental growth  appears  to  indicate  that  the  great 
lands  we  term  continents  are  the  result  in  good  part 
at  least  of  mountain  growth.  The  greater  are  sub- 
stantially consequent  on  the  development  of  the 
lesser  elevations.  The  principal  difficulty  we  en- 
counter in  this  hypothesis  is  that  it  does  not  provide 
us  with  a  beginning.  It  does  not  tell  us  why  at 
certain  points  on  this  earthy  ball  mountains  grow, 
and  by  the  growth  of  their  pedestals  and  foldings  lift 
a  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  above  the  plane  of  the 
sea.  It  is  something,  however,  if  we  esteem  the  in- 
quiry sufficiently  successful  to  show  us  in  a  general 
way  that  the  two  types  of  irregularities  of  the  earth's 
surface,  the  continental  masses  and  the  mountains, 
are  due  to  one  and  the  same  mode  of  action. 


NATUKE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.       67 

The  next  problem  before  iis  concerns  the  measure 
of  permanence  of  these  important  reliefs  which  in 
the  form  of  the  dry  lands  afford  the  principal  theatre 
of  the  higher  realms  of  life.  On  this  point  the 
opinions  of  students  of  the  earth  are  still  somewhat 
divided. 

When  geologists  found  that  near  the  summits  of 
many  of  the  highest  mountains  in  every  part  of  the 
world  the  rocks  were  composed  of  sediments  worn 
from  yet  older  lands  containing  fossils  which  lived 
on  ancient  sea  floors,  they  naturally  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  continents  had  undergone  great 
changes  in  their  positions,  at  one  time  what  is  now 
land  being  deep  sea,  and  at  another  time  what  is 
abysmal  sea  floor  having  been  dry  land.  To  certain 
minds  the  notion  that  the  earth  has  been  the  seat  of 
violent  revolutionary  changes  appears  to  be  singu- 
larly agreeable.  Revolutions  of  Nature,  like  great 
battlefields,  have  a  fascination  to  many  folk,  particu- 
larly when  they  are  considered  as  far-off  disturb- 
ances. The  earlier  geologists  regarded  the  earth's 
history  as  presenting  alternate  periods  of  brief  vio- 
lent action  and  of  long  enduring  repose.  In  the 
periods  of  disturbance  the  lands  were  elevated  above 
the  sea  or  lowered  below  its  level,  the  mountains 
were  swiftly  built,  and  life  was  swept  away  by  the 
commotions  in  the  course  of  time,  to  be  recreated 
by  the  Di-vine  act.  Gradually,  however,  with  the 
advance  of  science,  it  was  seen  that  this  theory  of 
catastrophic  violence  at  certain  stages  in  the  earth's 


68  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

history  was  unsupported  by  the  facts.  We  can  prove 
in  the  case  of  many  great  mountain  ranges  that  they 
have  been  gradually  uplifted  to  their  present  alti- 
tudes; that  they  have  grown  indeed  so  slowly  that 
there  may  never  have  been  a  stage  in  their  develop- 
ment when  they  moved  upward  with  such  violence 
as  to  destroy  the  animals  and  plants  which  dwelt 
upon  them. 

The  evidence  of  the  slow  growth  of  mountains  comes 
to  us  in  several  diverse  ways.  In  part  the  proof  is  of 
a  somewhat  complicated  nature;  in  part  it  may  be 
perceived  by  the  ordinary  observer.  One  of  the  simple 
proofs  of  a  gradual  gain  in  height  is  afforded  by  the 
many  cases  in  which  a  considerable  river  passes 
directly  across  the  line  of  a  great  mountain  fold  or 
fault,  dislocations  such  as  necessarily  occur  in  moun- 
tain-building. In  either  of  these  cases  we  may  find 
a  stream  passing  transversely  across  the  mountain, 
cutting  it  through  from  top  to  bottom,  under  such 
circumstances  as  to  make  it  plain  that  the  river  was 
on  the  ground  before  the  elevation  was  formed.  The 
moving  waters  of  the  stream  were  able  at  every  step 
in  the  growth  of  the  elevation  to  cut  its  bed  down- 
ward more  rapidly  than  the  mountain-building  forces 
elevated  the  rocks.  If  at  any  one  time  the  current 
bad  not  been  able  to  make  headway  against  the 
barrier  which  the  upheaval  of  the  surface  tended  to 
raise  to  its  course,  it  would  have  been  deflected,  and 
the  ridge  would  have  remained  unriven.  Now,  the 
cutting  power  of  a  stream  is  commonly  limited  with- 


NATUEE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  69 

in  narrow  bounds.  It  can  in  most  cases  only  cut 
away  rocks  at  the  rate  of  a  few  feet  in  a  century, 
and  consequently  the  upward  movement  of  the  strata 
could  never  have  much  exceeded  this  rate. 

Similarly,  where  a  fault  exists  with  a  great  up- 
throw on  one  side  and  a  corresponding  downthrow  on 
the  other,  if  the  stream  flows  toward  the  side  which 
is  upthrown  and  has  cut  its  way  through  the  rocks, 
we  must  conceive  the  dislocation  to  have  taken  place 
with  such  slowness  that  at  no  time  was  a  dam  formed 
sufficiently  high  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  waters. 
If  such  a  barrier  had  come  to  exist,  through  a  sud- 
den upward  movement  of  the  faulted  rocks,  we  can 
often  prove  that  the  river  would  have  been  deflected 
into  a  channel  which  would  have  carried  it  around 
the  elevation.  Evidence  of  this  kind  has  been  gath- 
ered in  the  case  of  but  few  mountain  arches  in  the 
world;  it  is  indeed  not  of  a  nature  to  be  readily 
discerned.  We  may  yet  assume  that  the  phenomena 
of  mountain  growth  does  not  naturally  lead  to  sudden 
disturbances  of  great  violence.  As  the  earth's  heat 
in  its  internal  parts  is  diminished,  the  strains  accu- 
mulate and  the  rocks  yield  in  a  way  which  even  in  a 
.i>-cological  sense  is  slow.  We  can  no  longer,  as  did 
the  geologists  of  the  last  century,  conceive  the  Alps 
or  the  Alleghanies  or  any  of  the  great  elevations  of 
the  earth  as  thrown  up  at  one  stroke,  but  must  re- 
gard them  as  structures  of  gradual  growth.  They 
are  perhaps  growing  at  present  at  about  the  same 
rate  as  in  all  stages  of  the  past. 


TO  NATURE    AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

Inasmuch  as  mountains  and  continents  clearly 
develop  together  in  something  like  the  same  rate  of 
movement,  it  is  no  surprise  to  find  that  continents 
are  not,  as  the  earlier  students  of  the  earth  conceived 
them,  the  accidents  of  the  geological  ages :  but  they 
are  rather  great,  slowly  evolved  permanences  in  the 
structure  of  the  earth. 

The  proof  that  our  continents  are  old,  that  they 
are  of  vast  antiquity,  even  in  a  geological  sense, 
comes  to  us  in  part  through  the  history  of  organic 
life,  and  in  part  from  the  character  and  distribution 
of  the  sediments  accumulated  on  the  sea  floor  and 
elevated  in  the  land-masses.  The  facts  which  go  to 
support  this  proposition  are  so  numerous  that  the 
weight  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  permanence 
of  continents  cannot  be  adequately  given  in  a  brief 
way.  The  most  that  can  be  done  with  this  part  of 
our  exposition  is  to  indicate  the  general  nature  of 
the  evidence  on  which  these  conclusions  rest.  These 
are  as  follows :  — 

Each  of  the  continental  masses  has,  as  we  have  al- 
ready had  occasion  to  note,  an  assemblage  of  life 
more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself.  A  naturalist  with  a 
broad  and  accurate  knowledge  of  organic  forms 
would  have  no  difficulty  in  determining  the  conti- 
nent whence  came  any  considerable  collection,  either 
of  animals  or  plants.  As  long  as  we  believed  that 
each  organic  species  came  into  being  as  the  result  of 
a  direct  and  mysterious  creative  act  on  the  part  of  a 
supreme  power,   this  peculiarity  in  the  distribution 


NATURE   AND   MAN   IN  a:MERICA.  71 

of  life  had  no  evident  bearing  on  the  theory  of  conti- 
nental history.  As  soon,  however,  as  we  came  to 
accept  the  hypothesis  that  living  forms  attained  to 
their  peculiar  shapes  and  functions  by  a  gradual 
transition,  each  important  step  requiring  a  consider- 
able period  for  its  accomplishment,  it  became  evi- 
dent that  the  lands  could  not  have  had  anything  like 
the  instability  in  their  position  which  was  of  old 
attributed  to  them.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  the  arma- 
dillos of  South  America,  a  group  of  forms  now  pecu- 
liar to  that  continent,  we  have  to  suppose  that  the 
creature  was  gradually  brought  to  its  present  form 
by  a  series  of  transitions  which  required  a  great 
number  of  species  for  its  completion. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  armadillo  came  from 
an  ordinary  hairy  mammal.  The  steps  which  led  to 
the  development  of  the  hard  plates  of  the  skin  and 
of  the  concomitant  habit  of  rolling  the  body  into 
a  ball  in  order  to  secure  protection  from  its  ene- 
mies, must  have  required  many  geological  periods 
for  their  accomplishment.  Such  elaborations  of  pe- 
culiar forms  demand  that  the  land  area  in  which 
they  occur  shall  be  permanent,  in  order  that  the 
group  in  which  the  changes  are  taking  place  shall 
survive.  Furthermore,  it  is  necessary  that  the  con- 
tinent which  is  the  theatre  of  the  evolution  shall  re- 
main separate  from  other  land  areas.  If  the  South 
American  field  had  been  frequently  connected  with 
other  land  masses,  creatures  of  more  vigorous  habits 
Avould  have  entered  upon  the  area  from  other  lands 
and  displaced  these  weak  forms. 


72  NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

We  see  such  a  process  of  extinguishing  lowly 
species  taking  place  in  Australia  to-day.  Most  of 
the  common  wild  animals  of  Europe  develop  most 
rapidly  in  Australia,  displacing  the  ancient  native 
inhabitants.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  rabbits 
of  Europe  have  multiplied  to  such  an  extent  in  this 
southern  continent  that  they  are  driving  out  the 
less  vigorous  marsupials  by  occupying  their  ground 
and  appropriating  their  food.  If  wolves  or  our 
larger  cats,  the  leopards  and  tigers,  were  made  resi- 
dents of  Australia,  they  would  doubtless  in  a  very 
brief  time  altogether  destroy  the  pouched  animals  of 
that  region.  Thus  from  a  study  of  the  organic  life 
which  occupies  the  region  of  the  continents,  we  are 
brought  to  the  conclusion  that  these  land  masses 
have  remained  from  a  very  remote  age  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  and  that  they  have  maintained  a 
tolerably  complete  isolation  from  each  other.  Now 
and  then  the  two  great  land-masses  of  the  Old  and 
the  New  World  which  are  grouped  about  the  North 
Pole  may  have  united  with  each  other ;  but  if  such 
connections  ever  existed,  they  were  probably  of  a 
temporary  nature. 

Similar  evidence  as  to  the  relative  permanence  of 
continents  is  afforded  by  the  physical  characters  of 
the  sediments  which  make  up  the  rocks  lying  upon 
our  continental  areas.  In  most  cases  these  rocks 
contain  large  quantities  of  coarse  detrital  matter, 
evidently  worn  from  the  neighboring  lands.  Only 
here  and  there  do  we  find  deposits  which  were  mani- 


NATURE   AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  73 

festl}-  formed  on  the  floor  of  the  deei:>er  seas.  Thus 
in  the  one  hundred  thousand  feet  or  so  of  rock  sec- 
tion formed  since  the  dawn  of  life  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face within  the  limits  of  what  is  now  North  America, 
we  find  that  at  least  nine  tenths  of  the  whole  mass  is 
composed  of  detrital  materials  or  of  fossils  which 
show  that  the  shores  of  the  sea  in  which  the  deposi- 
tion took  place  were  not  far  away  from  the  site  now 
occupied  by  the  strata.  Wherever  we  find  conglo- 
merates, coarse  sandstones,  or  muds  which  have 
rapidly  accumulated,  we  may  be  sure  that  we  are 
near  old  shores;  only  the  pure  limestones  and  the 
very  fine  shales  or  deposits  of  volcanic  debris  can 
be  accumulated  at  points  far  from  the  coast-line. 
Thus  all  the  mud  and  sand  and  small  pebbles 
which  escape  from  the  Mississippi  River  descend 
upon  the  floor  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  mouth  of  the  stream ;  only  the  com- 
pletely dissolved  matter,  that  which  does  not  discolor 
the  water,  finds  its  way  to  a  great  distance  from  the 
coast. 

To  conceive  the  nature  of  this  evidence  drawn 
from  the  composition  of  the  rocks,  it  would  be  well 
to  note  certain  peculiarities  of  the  most  characteris- 
tic deep-sea  deposit  which  has  yet  been  found  in 
North  America.  This  is  the  Devonian  black  shale, 
so  extensively  developed  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio 
River,  and  the  neighboring  parts  of  the  continent, 
and  which  is  characteristically  an  open  or  deep-sea 
deposit.     During  the  lower  Devonian  period  the  dis- 


74  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

trict  now  occupied  by  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
was  in  the  main  tolerably  deep  sea.  On  the  west 
arose  the  great  islands  of  the  archipelago  formed  by 
the  emerging  ridges  of  the  Cordilleran  Mountains; 
on  the  east  the  archipelago  of  the  partially  emerged 
Appalachian  system.  Between  the  two  apparently 
flowed  the  waters  of  what  is  now  the  Gulf  Stream. 
At  this  time  near  the  shores  of  this  great  gulf  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  deposits  worn  from  the  islands 
of  the  east  and  west  were  plentifully  laid  down. 
Near  these  shores  they  contained  coarse  debris,  indi- 
cating the  presence  of  lands  but  into  the  middle  por- 
tions of  this  great  Mississippi  gulf  and  much  of  the 
eastern  district  there  came  but  very  small  quantities 
of  land  sediment.  The  consequence  was  that  for 
several  geological  periods  deep-sea  beds  were  laid 
down  in  that  field.  They  consist  of  extremely  fine- 
grained materials  derived  from  the  waste  of  land- 
rocks,  commingled  with  a  great  quantity  of  organic 
debris.  So  great  is  the  amount  of  organic  matter 
in  the  mass  that  when  we  distil  it  we  obtain  a  con- 
siderable part  of  its  bulk  of  those  complicated  sub- 
stances known  under  the  common  name  of  petroleum. 
At  several  points  in  the  Paleozoic  rocks  of  North 
America  we  have  in  ancient  coral  reefs  excellent 
evidence  as  to  the  former  position  of  the  shore-line, 
and  therefore  of  the  alterations  in  the  elevation  of 
the  land  which  have  taken  place  since  these  interest- 
ing deposits  were  formed.  Thus  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Louisville,   Kentuckv,  there  is  an  extensive 


NATURE   AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  75 

coral  reef  formed  in  the  Devonian  period,  the  larger 
parts  of  which  lie  at  the  height  of  three  or  four  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  evident,  on  the  study 
of  this  structure,  that  it  was  formed  just  below  the 
level  of  the  ancient  ocean  which  at  the  time  of  its 
construction  extended  over  this  part  of  the  country. 
Again,  in  New  York,  at  a  yet  greater  height  above 
the  sea,  we  have  similar  reefs  which  were  formed  at 
various  ages,  partly  in  Silurian  times,  and  partly  in 
successive  epochs  up  to  near  the  base  of  the  Carbon- 
iferous series.  Taking  all  these  coral  reefs  in  this 
country,  we  can  throughout  the  Paleozoic  age  deter- 
mine, at  least  for  limited  areas,  the  height  at  which 
the  waters  lay  against  the  face  of  the  continent. 

There  are  some  other  beds  in  the  rocks  of  North 
America  which  afford  evidence  showing  that  they 
were  formed  in  pelagic  conditions  or  on  the  floor  of 
wide  seas ;  but,  as  before  remarked,  at  least  nine 
tenths  of  the  whole  section  was  evidently  deposited 
in  rather  shallow  water,  at  no  great  distances  from 
shore-lines  whence  the  debris  composing  the  rocks 
came. 

The  lowland  section  of  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
States  from  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  to  the  Rio 
Grande  presents  one  of  the  most  interesting  geo- 
graphic features  of  the  continent.  Except  in  Siberia 
and  the  Paraguayan  district  of  South  America,  there 
is  probably  no  such  extensive  plain-land  in  the  world, 
and  it  is  in  fact  a  more  considerable  unbroken  level 
surface  than  is  elsewhere  known  save  in  Asia.     All 


76  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN    AMERICA. 

plain-lands  of  this  or  similar  nature  are  due  to  either 
of  two  simple  causes.  They  owe  their  level  surface 
to  the  debasement  of  the  land  under  the  action  of 
erosive  agents  which  work  within  the  atmosphere,  or 
they  are  the  result  of  the  constructive  processes 
which  go  on  upon  the  sea  floor  along  the  borders  of 
previously  existing  lands.  The  plains  which  are 
produced  by  the  wearing  away  of  the  land  rarel}',  if 
ever,  attain  to  a  surface  anywhere  near  as  horizon- 
tal as  that  exhibited  in  the  great  Carolinian  plain. 
There  are  generally  some  hard  portions  of  the  rock 
which  stand  as  monuments  of  the  former  great  eleva- 
tion of  the  country.  The  great  plains  of  the  world 
are  characteristically  formed  of  sea-bottom  deposits, 
the  beds  of  which  have  not  yet  been  disturbed  by 
m  ount  ain-buil  ding. 

If  the  student  should  journey  from  the  eastern  foot 
of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  straight  away  to  the 
Atlantic,  say  across  the  border-land  of  Georgia  or  the 
Carolinas,  he  would  observe  that  the  surface  gently 
inclined  toward  the  sea  at  the  rate  of  about  five  feet 
in  a  mile.  Here  and  there  the  more  considerable 
streams  have  cut  their  way  across  this  gently  in- 
clined region,  making  sharp  breaks  in  its  otherwise 
uniform  surface;  but  these  occasional  interruptions 
do  not  materially  qualify  the  level  character  of  the 
country.  Over  a  large  part  of  the  area  the  plain 
has  a  billowy  or  rolling  surface  which  indicates  that 
the  river  action  has  not  been  able  to  shape  the  to- 
pography so  as  to  alter  its  original  sea-bottom  form. 


NATURE   AXD   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  77 

As  the  observer  proceeds  toward  the  sea-shore  he 
may  note  at  various  points,  especially  as  he  ap- 
proaches the  present  coast-line,  the  existence  of  more 
or  less  sharply  defined  benches,  which  he,  if  expert, 
recognizes  to  be  old  sea  margins,  —  levels  at  which 
the  ocean  lay  for  a  time  during  the  process  of  the  up- 
rising of  the  plain.  At  the  present  shore-line  the  last 
and  naturally  the  most  distinct  of  these  sea  margins 
is  the  bench  against  which  the  margin  of  the  sea 
now  lies. 

If,  now,  the  student  could  tate  on  the  habits  of  an 
aquatic  animal  and  follow  the  slope  which  he  has 
been  pursuing  farther  out  beneath  the  ocean's  sur- 
face, he  would  observe  that  it  declined  to  the  east- 
ward at  the  same  rate  at  which  he  had  observed  it 
to  fall  in  his  journey  from  the  mountains  to  the 
ocean  border.  Moreover,  the  general  shape  of  the 
emerged  area,  apart  from  that  given  by  the  channels 
of  the  streams  on  the  land,  would  be  almost  exactly 
paralleled  on  the  sea  floor  in  the  gentle  undulations 
of  the  bottom.  Following  the  surface  from  fifty  to 
a  hundred  miles  out  from  the  present  shore-line, 
with  the  bottom  declining  to  the  eastward  at  the  rate 
of  about  five  feet  in  a  mile,  the  student  would  finally 
come  to  a  point  where  the  plain  began  to  pitch  more 
rapidly  toward  the  depths  of  the  sea,  changing  the 
rate  of  its  descent  from  about  five  feet  to  a  slope  of 
one  hundred  or  two  hundred  feet  to  the  mile ;  and 
this  steeper  declivity  would  continue  until  the  deeper 
parts  of  the  sea  were  attained. 


78  NATUKE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Our  imaginary  submarine  geologist  would  readily 
note  the  conditions  of  origin  of  this  under-water 
shelf.  He  would  find  that  owing  to  the  action  of  the 
undertow  produced  by  the  surf,  and  of  the  tide  in  its 
reflux  from  the  shore,  a  quantity  of  debris  won  from 
the  land  and  delivered  to  the  sea  by  the  ocean  waves 
or  by  rivers,  was  constantly  though  slowly  journey- 
ing down  the  gentle  inclination  at  its  margin.  In 
other  words,  he  would  note  that  this  shelf  is  in 
effect  like  the  delta  of  a  river,  —  which  is  just  such  a 
plain  as  we  have  been  describing,  only  on  a  smaller 
scale,  —  over  the  top  of  which  debris  is  carried  to  the 
steep  front  where  it  comes  to  rest.  Thus  a  delta  is 
constantly  pushing  its  margin  in  successive,  somewhat 
steeply  inclined  strata  out  into  the  sea.  The  conti- 
nental shelf  may  be  regarded  as  the  continental 
delta,  vastly  greater  in  area  and  mass,  and  much 
more  slowly  formed  than  the  delta  of  true  rivers, 
such  as  that  of  the  Nile  or  the  Mississippi. 

From  the  facts  noted  above,  we  perceive  that  the 
great  southern  plain  is  but  the  emerged  portion  of  a 
vast  accumulation  of  debris  which  has  been  formed 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  from  the  west  of  the  land 
accumulated  on  the  sea  bottom  during  the  geologic 
ages  since  the  continent  began  to  grow.  Nearly  all 
the  extended  lands  in  the  world  have  been  formed  in 
this  manner ;  but  the  greater  portion  of  them  have 
been  disrupted  and  given  a  varied  outline  by  moun- 
tain-building forces,  while  this  great  southern  plain 
has   escaped    such   disturbance.      With   the   further 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  79 

shrinkage  of  this  sphere  it  will  undoubtedly  obey  the 
forces  which  corrugate  the  rocks  and  take  on  a  moun- 
tainous shape,  for  its  present  plain  surface  is  only 
one  stage  in  the  course  of  continental  growth. 

If  the  student  seeks  the  source  of  the  materials 
which  have  been  built  into  this  continental  plain,  he 
may  find  them  in  the  worn  down  uplands,  — the 
mountains  of  the  Appalachian,  the  Cordilleran,  and 
the  Laurentian  districts,  which  have,  as  we  may 
readily  see,  lost  a  great  portion  of  their  mass,  the 
materials  being  borne  away  to  the  neighboring  sea. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  physiographer,  this 
southern  plain  is  a  most  interesting  case  of  a  great 
land  in  the  second  stage  of  its  organization,  the  first 
step  being  the  accumulation  of  debris  on  the  sea 
floor  in  a  nearly  horizontal  position,  the  next  the 
state  in  which  it  rises  above  the  sea  floor  and  takes 
on  the  aspect  of  an  extended  plain,  the  third  being 
that  in  which  the  plain  is  corrugated  by  the  moun- 
tain-building forces,  the  final  step  in  the  series  being 
that  in  which  the  surface  is  degraded  once  again  into 
the  form  of  a  rude  plain,  only  the  roots  of  the  moun- 
tains remaining  to  attest  the  later  stages  of  its  his- 
tory. From  Virginia,  and  thence  to  the  northward 
to  Nova  Scotia,  these  worn  down  mountains  which 
have  returned  almost  to  the  aspect  of  the  plain  may 
often  be  clearly  discerned.  The  materials  which 
composed  their  worn  away  portions  have  been  re- 
moved by  the  action  of  streams  of  water  or  of  ice ; 
l)ut  from  the  hia'hlv  tilted  attitudes  of  the  rocks  be- 


80  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

neatli  the  surface  we  may  readily  infer  the  original 
position  and  height  of  the  mountains  which  once 
stood  upon  the  surface. 

Only  a  portion,  perhaps  not  the  greater  portion,  of 
these  vast  continental  deltas  consists  of  the  waste 
yielded  in  the  form  of  sand,  graA^el,  or  mud  to  the 
sea  floors.  In  large  part  the  debris  is  formed  of 
organic  remains,  —  the  bodies  of  animals  and  plants 
which  have  died  and  given  their  debris  to  the  sea 
bottom.  This  element  of  the  strata  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  organic  life  which  is  afterward  to 
dwell  on  the  lands  which  are  formed  from  these 
marine  accumulations.  These  animals  which  yield 
the  fossils  obtain  the  substances  which  they  build 
into  their  bodies  from  the  materials  which  are  dis- 
solved in  the  sea  waters,  and  which  being  in  the  state 
of  complete  solution  are  not  visible  to  the  eye. 
These  substances  which  are  dissolved  in  sea  water 
and  which  give  it  its  saline  taste  and  its  hard  quality, 
have  come  into  the  ocean  mainly  from  the  rivers, 
and  from  the  volcanoes  which  are  scattered  over  the 
sea  floor  and  along  the  coasts  of  the  continents.  If 
we  take  a  cubic  foot  of  sea-water,  we  may  find  in  it 
atoms  or  molecules  of  mineral  matter  which  have 
been  derived  from  ever}^  river  of  every  land.  Thus 
the  limy  matter  and  other  organic  waste  which  rocks 
contain  is  not  in  most  cases  derived  from  the  shores 
of  the  continent  nearest  to  the  point  where  the  beds 
were  laid  down,  but  has  its  source  in  many  different 
lands  and  through  the  volcanoes  from  the  strata  be- 
neath the  existing'  seas. 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA.  81 

In  the  considerations  as  above  set  forth  we  per- 
ceive that  the  coast  shelf  or  continental  delta  which 
borders  the  eastern  side  of  North  America  has  only 
in  part  derived  its  materials  from  the  waste  of  that 
continent.  In  large  part  the  materials  have  been 
gathered  upon  it  from  the  great  store  which  the  sea 
contains.  Thus  if  we  could  take  away  from  the 
southern  plain  the  portion  of  its  mass  which  animals 
and  plants  have  won  from  the  waters  of  the  sea,  we 
should  doubtless  find  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
great  area  would  by  the  consequent  diminution  of 
bulk  sink  below  the  level  of  the  sea.  Further  inquiry 
would  show  us  that  a  similar  withdrawal  of  the  or- 
ganic waste  from  the  rocks  underlying  the  other  por- 
tions of  the  continent,  would  reduce  its  consolidated 
area  to  the  state  of  detached  islands. 

There  is  yet  another  proof  as  to  the  relative  stabil- 
ity of  these  continental  masses  derived  from  a  very 
interesting  physiographic  feature  known  as  the  con- 
tinental shelf.  Around  the  greater  part  of  the  shores 
of  all  the  continents  which  have  been  carefully  stud- 
ied by  the  sounding-lead,  we  mark  the  presence  of  a 
wide  fringe  of  shallow  water  extending  from  the 
shore-line  to  the  distance  of  some  scores  or  hundreds 
of  miles  from  the  edge  of  the  continent,  at  its  outer 
or  seaward  margin  descending  suddenly  into  deep 
water.  The  existence  of  this  shelf  has  been  well 
established  throughout  the  region  of  the  north  At- 
lantic, —  the  only  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  where 
soundings  have  been  made  with  such  completeness 

6 


82       NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

as  to  show  with  tolerable  accurac}'  the  shape  of  the 
sea  bottom.  Soundings  made  elsewhere  indicate 
that  this  feature  is  probably  common  along  the 
greater  part  of  the  continental  shores. 

Simple  inspection  of  the  facts  concerning  the  con- 
tinental shelf  serves  to  indicate  pretty  clearly  that 
it  is  composed  of  the  waste  worn  from  the  continent 
by  the  sea  or  conveyed  to  the  shores  by  rivers  or 
glaciers,  and  thence  distributed  over  the  portion  of 
the  sea  floor  near  the  coast-line,  partly  by  the  action 
of  the  waves,  but  mainly  by  tidal  currents.  This 
supposition  is  fortified  by  several  facts.  Wherever 
we  can  ascertain  that  the  coast  shelf  is  abundantly 
developed,  we  find  that  the  continental  surface  to  the 
inland  of  it  bears  the  mark  of  long-continued  abra- 
sion by  the  sea.  Thus  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
United  States,  where  the  continental  shelf  is  very 
well  developed,  we  find  evidences  of  great  cutting 
action  affected  by  the  ocean  waves. 

Along  the  shore  from  New  Brunswick  to  the  Caro- 
linas,  the  old  mountains  such  as  once  occupied 
eastern  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  eastern 
Virginia,  have  been  worn  down  to  their  very  roots 
at  times  when  the  sea  worked  at  levels  a  few  hundred 
feet  higher  than  it  does  at  present.  This  benching 
back  of  the  continent  by  marine  action  is  most 
clearly  shown  in  Virginia.  The  Virginian  district 
shows  us  three  distinct  sets  of  mountains:  on  the 
west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  we  have  a  set  of  well -de- 
veloped mountains,  the  Virginia  Alleghanies,  which 


NATUEE  AND  MAN  IN  AxMERICA.  83 

though  somewhat  eroded,  retain  their  relief  and 
much  of  their  original  mountainous  contours.  In 
the  Blue  Ridge  we  have  a  broad  massive  mountain 
range  relatively  little  worn  on  its  western  aspect, 
but  profoundly  eroded  on  the  eastern  face  of  the 
chain.  Farther  to  the  east,  on  the  plain-land  of  Vir- 
ginia, we  have  another  set  of  mountain-built  rocks, 
which  have  been  planed  down  to  a  nearly  level  sur- 
face. Originally  the  newer  mountains  of  eastern 
Virginia,  lying  to  the  eastward  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
which  were  formed  at  about  the  same  time  as  those 
in  the  west  of  that  axis,  were  as  well  developed  as 
the  Alleghanies  to  the  west  of  that  barrier ;  but  the 
whole  surface  of  this  eastern  section  has  been  so 
worn  by  the  action  of  the  sea,  the  material  being 
removed  to  form  the  continental  shelf,  that  scarcely 
a  vestige  of  their  original  altitude  now  remains. 
The  sea  bench  of  eastern  Virginia,  the  materials  of 
which  have  been  removed  to  the  ocean  floor  or  dis- 
solved in  its  waters,  probably  represents  a  section 
having  a  depth  of  at  least  half  a  mile  and  a  width 
of  somewhere  near  a  hundred  miles. 

The  enormous  erosion  indicated  by  this  continen- 
tal bench  which  lies  above  the  level  of  the  sea  and 
the  corresponding  shelf  of  the  detrital  materials  ex- 
tending out  for  a  hundred  miles  or  more  from  the 
coast  requires  us  to  suppose  that  for  a  great  period 
in  the  past,  perhaps  ever  since  the  Triassic  age,  this 
shore  has  been  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  its  pres- 
ent altitude  in  relation  to  the  sea.     If  during  that 


84  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

time  the  continent  had  been  depressed  very  far  below 
its  present  level,  the  waves  could  not  have  operated 
on  this  section;  so,  too,  a  great  elevation  would  have 
taken  this  coast  section  out  of  the  field  of  marine 
erosion.  Thus  all  the  evidences  from  erosive  work 
which  we  obtain  along  the  shore  of  this  continent 
point  to  only  moderate  variations  in  the  altitude  of 
the  shore  from  a  remote  period  in  the  geological 
past.  It  amounts  to  substantial  proof  that  for  many 
geological  periods  the  waves  have  worked  within  a 
range  of  one  thousand  feet  above  the  present  shore- 
line. 

We  often  obtain  similar  evidence  whenever  we 
can  analyze  the  history  of  a  shore  by  a  study  of  the 
successive  deposits  which  were  formed  at  different 
stages  in  the  earth's  history.  Thus  in  the  case  of 
eastern  Massachusetts,  we  are  now  able  to  affirm  that 
at  various  stages  in  the  past  the  shore-line  has  been 
near  its  present  position.  The  facts  on  which  we 
found  this  statement  are  readily  apprehensible  and 
may  be  briefly  stated.     They  are  as  follows : 

Beginning  with  the  lower  Cambrian  period,  the 
earliest  stage  in  the  earth's  history  in  which  we  have 
unmistakable  evidence  of  organic  life,  we  find  that 
in  this  region  of  southeastern  Massachusetts,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Attleborough,  there  were  deposited 
thick  beds  of  shales  with  associated  sandstones  and 
conglomerates  containing  large  pebbles  such  as  could 
not  be  transported  to  any  considerable  distance  from 
the   sea-shore.       The   deposits  of   this   age   contain 


NATURE   AND  MAN  Ds    AMERICA.  85 

twenty  or  thirty  species  of  fossils,  including  a  great 
assemblage  of  crustaceans,  the  bodies  of  which  were 
apparently  broken  by  wave  or  current  action.  The 
beds  of  this  series  frequently  contain  large,  some- 
what water- worn  boulders  and  great  quantities  of 
pebbles  which  have  evidently  been  stratified  by  strong 
currents.  The  agents  which  transport  pebbles  in 
great  quantities  operate  only  near  shore-lines;  so, 
too,  the  strong  currents  which  have  tossed  these 
fragments  of  rock  about,  can  only  exist  in  shallow 
water.  Moreover,  on  carefully  inspecting  these  peb- 
bles in  deposits,  we  find  that  in  many  cases  we  can 
ascertain  the  beds  of  rock  whence  the  fragments 
came.  They  are  all  derived  from  the  rocks  imme- 
diately on  the  west  of  their  present  site.  In  this 
manner  by  the  use  of  these  old  mineralogical  mu- 
seums of  the  conglomerates  we  are  able  not  only  to 
affirm  the  neighborhood  of  the  shore- line  in  this  re- 
gion in  an  early  stage  of  the  earth's  history,  but  also 
to  show  that  the  greater  part  of  the  crystalline  rocks 
now  existing  in  this  neighborhood  were  exposed  to 
the  action  of  the  sea  just  as  they  are  at  present. 

One  stage  higher  in  the  geological  section  brings  us 
to  the  middle  Cambrian  of  eastern  Massachusetts,  the 
beds  of  trilobite -bearing  strata  at  Braintree.  These 
deposits,  which  are  abundantly  developed  in  Boston 
and  vicinity,  contain  also  great  quantities  of  pebbles 
and  sometimes  considerable  boulders  arranged  in 
strata  which  bear  the  unmistakable  impress  of  shal- 
low water.     In  the  case  of  the  Cambrian  beds  about 


86  NATURE  AND   MAN   IN  A3IERICA. 

Boston,  we  can  prove  that  the  pebbles  were  derived 
from  rocks  at  the  sea-level  lying  near  the  place  in 
which  we  now  find  the  fragments.  Thus  we  estab- 
lish the  fact  that  at  tw^o  stages  in  the  Cambrian 
period  the  shore-line  of  New  England  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  what  is  now  Massachusetts  Bay  was  not 
far  from  its  present  position. 

After  the  Cambrian  period  there  comes  a  great  in- 
terval, representing  many  geological  ages  extending 
down  to  the  Carboniferous  time,  in  which  we  have 
no  evidence  as  to  the  position  of  the  sea  in  this  part 
of  the  shore,  —  it  was  probably  more  elevated  than  at 
the  present  time ;  but  in  the  Carboniferous  period,  in 
the  basin  of  those  streams  which  flow  into  the  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  we  have  an  extensive  series  of  coal- 
measures,  —  beds  which  show  by  their  structure  that 
for  a  very  great  period  the  shore-line  was  once  more 
near  its  present  position.  Here  again  the  evidence 
is  mainly  derived  from  pebbly  beds  which  have  a 
thickness  of  several  hundred  feet,  with  a  range  and 
character  which  indicate  shallow  water;  and  the 
fragments  are  those  derived  from  rocks  which  are 
known  to  be  in  places  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
deposits  themselves.  They  come  from  the  northwest, 
as  do  those  of  our  recent  glacial  deposits. 

For  the  next  step  in  the  history  of  the  shore-line 
of  eastern  New  England  we  must  go- to  the  Connec- 
ticut valley,  where  we  have  ample  proof  that  during 
the  early  stages  of  the  Jurassic  period,  or  perhaps 
the  later  part  of  the  Triassic  age,  the  land  was  near 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  87 

its  present  level.  The  so-called  sandstones  of  the 
Connecticut  valley  are  largely  conglomerates,  the 
rocks  of  which  were  worn  from  the  hills  which  bor- 
der that  great  valley  and  accumulated  in  great  quan- 
tities in  its  trough.  The  evidence  of  the  sea-shore 
action  is  not  limited  to  the  physical  characteristics 
alone.  As  is  well  known,  the  sandstone  layers  of 
the  Massachusetts  Triassic  rocks  contain  great  num- 
bers of  fossil  footprints,  —  the  marks  left  upon  the 
tidal  shores  by  certain  large  creatures  allied  to  our 
frogs  and  toads,  which  appear  to  have  resorted  to  the 
tidal  waters  for  food  or  for  breeding  purposes,  and 
stamped  the  exposed  mud-flats  with  their  footprints. 
Although  some  observers  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  these  rocks  containing  the  footprints  of 
the  Connecticut  sandstone  may  have  been  formed  in 
fresh-water  lakes,  the  body  of  the  evidence  points 
rather  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  accumulated 
in  a  salt-water  basin.  It  is  only  where  the  tide 
comes  and  goes  that  we  have  the  conditions  which 
permit  the  preservation  of  such  impressions  as  were 
made  by  the  feet  of  these  ancient  animals  on  the 
sands. 

After  the  age  of  the  Connecticut  sandstone,  we 
have  again  a  considerable  lapse  of  time  before  we 
have  another  record  of  the  shore  conditions  in  this 
region.  Ascending  to  the  lower  Cretaceous  period, 
we  find  in  certain  imperfectly  revealed  deposits  on 
the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard  a  considerable  body 
of  fossils  which  have  a  character  proper  to  shallow 


88  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

water,  and  which  belong  to  the  lower  stage  of  that 
great  section.  We  have  here  an  assemblage  of  life 
which  has  a  certain  similarity  to  marine  forms  of 
the  present  day.  The  relatively  modern  character  is 
especially  indicated  by  the  fact  that  there  are  several 
species  of  oysters  in  the  beds  of  this  age.  The  species 
are  evidently  those  which  inhabit  shallow  water;  and 
the  sediments  in  which  they  are  contained,  abound- 
ing in  small  pebbles  and  composed  in  the  main  of 
coarse  sand,  affirm  this  supposition,  and  show  us  that 
at  this,  the  fifth  fossiliferous  level  of  the  Massachu- 
setts rocks,  we  have  again  a  shore- line  near  by.  One 
stage  higher  in  the  rocks  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  we 
have  in  the  well-known  deposits  exhibited  at  Gay 
Head,  beds  probably  formed  in  the  Eocene  or  Miocene 
Tertiary,  proof  that  the  shore-line  was  near  its  pres- 
ent position.  Here  the  evidence  as  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  shore  is  mainly  of  a  purely  physical 
nature,  but  affords  satisfactory  proof  of  shore -line 
conditions. 

The  Gay  Head  series  of  deposits  was  formed  at  the 
mouth  or  delta  section  of  a  great  river  which  prob- 
ably conveyed  the  waters  now  discharged  to  the  sea 
through  the  Hudson,  the  Connecticut,  the  Black- 
stone,  and  other  streams  of  southern  New  England. 
It  is  easy  to  prove  that  these  delta  deposits  lie  at  the 
present  time  not  more  than  one  hundred  feet  above 
the  altitude  at  which  they  were  laid  down  along  the 
old  coast-line.  They  contain  large  bodies  of  vege- 
table matter,  —  lignites,  as  they  are  termed,  —  com- 


NATUBE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  89 

posed  of  driftwood,  which  gathers  in  shallows  about 
the  point  of  discharge  where  a  great  river  escapes 
into  the  sea. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  evidence  from  the  coast  shelf, 
or  undev-water  fringe  of  detritus,  and  the  coast 
bench,  or  the  scarf  whence  this  detritus  was  in  part 
obtained,  and  the  fossiliferous  record  all  agree  in 
affirming  the  conclusion  that  the  New  England 
coast-line  has  not  been  far  removed  from  its  present 
vertical  position  during  a  great  part  of  the  earth's 
history.  There  are  really  no  stratified  deposits  in 
eastern  Massachusetts  which  appear  to  indicate  that 
the  shore  has  ever  been  deeply  submerged  since  it 
first  came  above  the  waters.  Every  fragment  of  the 
geological  section  which  remains  appears  to  indi- 
cate the  persistence  of  the  coast-line  in  somewhere 
near  its  present  position. 

Against  this  evidence  which  seems  to  show  the 
tolerable  permanence  of  one  portion  of  this  continent 
we  must  set  the  proof  which  indicates  its  more  or 
less  considerable  instability  at  certain  stages  in  the 
earth's  history.  This  evidence,  though  of  a  frag- 
mentary nature,  makes  it  plain  that  at  certain  times 
and  for  brief  periods  particular  parts  of  the  conti- 
nents are  uplifted  so  as  to  extend  the  shore  margin 
far  out  to  seaward,  while  other  portions  are  depressed 
to  a  depth  beneath  the  sea.  It  is  in  these  periods  of 
local  depression  that  beds  of  marine  origin  were 
deposited  which  were  afterward  uplifted  so  as  to 
bring  them  high  above  the  sea.     I  propose  now  to 


90  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

inquire  into  the  character  of  these  movements  which 
have  taken  place  in  the  continent  of  North  America. 
As  yet  our  information  concerning  these  changes  is 
so  imperfect  that  we  cannot  set  forth  the  history  of 
the  continent  in  anything  like  a  complete  manner. 
Enough  fragments  of  information,  however,  are  ob- 
tainable to  display  at  least  in  outline  the  general 
character  of  the  oscillations  which  this  land-mass 
has  undergone. 

It  is  a  safe  rule  in  geological  inquiry  to  begin  our 
exploration  of  obscure  phenomena  in  that  portion  of 
the  earth's  history  which  lies  nearest  the  present 
day;  for  in  the  yesterday  of  our  earth's  record  we 
may  hope  to  find  the  facts  less  confused  than  in  the 
remoter  past.  The  last  great  accident  which  befell 
North  America  was  that  singular  disturbance  of  its 
climatal  and  other  conditions  known  as  the  glacial 
period.  I  hope  in  a  subsequent  chapter  to  show  the 
reader  that  a  glacial  period,  vast  as  are  the  changes 
in  conditions  of  land  and  sea  which  it  brings  about, 
is  not  really  as  peculiar  in  its  character  as  is  com- 
monly supposed.  Leaving  aside  for  the  present  the 
physiographic  aspects  and  general  geological  history 
of  glaciation,  we  will  devote  our  attention  to  certain 
changes  of  level  which  came  about  during  the  ice 
time,  and  the  cause  of  these  changes,  and  their  effect 
upon  the  continent  considered  as  the  theatre  of  life. 

The  studies  made  by  Louis  Agassiz  proved  that  a 
large  part  of  the  continent  of  North  America  had  in 
very   recent   geological   times   been   occupied    by   a 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  91 

thick  deposit  of  ice.  Agassiz  was  of  the  opinion  that 
the  whole  of  the  surface  of  this  continent  had  been 
covered  by  a  glacial  sheet.  Subsequent  inquiry  has 
shown  that  the  glaciated  area  occupies  only  about 
one  half  of  the  continent.  The  southern  margin  of 
the  ice  sheet  passed  as  an  irregular  and  somewhat 
broken  line  from  some  point  on  the  Pacific  coast 
near  the  southern  point  of  Oregon  across  the  conti- 
nent to  the  sea  somewhere  between  New  York  and 
Washington.  South  of  this  great  wall  of  ice,  which 
in  the  period  of  greatest  glaciation  occupied  the  po- 
sition thus  indicated,  there  were  probably  a  few 
points  of  great  elevation  occupied  by  ice  streams. 
It  is  possible  that  in  the  higher  valleys  of  the  moun- 
tains southward  to  Arizona  local  glaciers  developed 
in  this  peculiar  stage  of  the  earth's  history.  It  is 
clear  that  this  glacial  sheet  attained  a  remarkable 
depth.  We  know  that  it  overrode  the  Berkshire 
Hills  and  such  mountains  as  Monadnock,  and  even 
the  summit  of  Mount  Washington.  In  Switzerland, 
where  there  was  contemporaneously  a  great  exten- 
sion of  the  ice,  it  seems  clear  that  the  sheet  attained 
a  depth  considerably  exceeding  a  mile ;  and  in  North 
America  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that 
the  upper  level  of  the  great  ice  plain  lay  in  places 
at  a  height  of  nearly  two  miles  above  the  surface 
of  the  earth. 

The  phenomena  of  general  glaciation  are  so  unex- 
ampled in  our  ordinary  experiences  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  determine  in  a  satisfactory  way  the  conditions 


92  XATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  land  during  this  ice  time.  Of  late,  however, 
it  has  become  evident  that  during  the  glacial  period 
the  northern  part  of  North  America,  and  probably 
the  northern  part  of  Europe  as  well,  sank  down  to  a 
depth  increasing  from  the  least  submergence  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  where  the  down- 
sinking  probably  did  not  amount  to  more  than  a  few 
score  feet,  northward  to  Greenland,  where  it  probably 
lowered  the  shore  two  thousand  feet  below  its  pres- 
ent level.  The  amount  of  this  submergence  along 
the  coast  of  New  England  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  inquiry.  Although  the  task  is  incomplete,  a 
number  of  observations  have  been  gathered  which 
make  it  pretty  clear  that  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston  the  submergence  amounted  to  at  least  two 
hundred  feet,  the  upper  limit  not  yet  being  well  as- 
certained, but  perhaps  exceeding  three  hundred  feet 
of  altitude.  On  the  coast  of  Maine,  the  evidence  of 
deep  submergence  persisting  for  some  time  after  the 
ice  sheet  retreated  from  that  district  is  of  an  unques- 
tionable nature.  The  facts  are  best  exhibited  in 
the  southward  faces  of  the  Mount  Desert  mountains. 
Along  those  declivities  of  the  hills  which  slope  to 
the  Atlantic,  we  find  at  various  heights  evidence 
that  the  land  in  its  re-elevation  after  the  glacial  sub- 
sidence paused  from  time  to  time  for  'considerable 
periods,  enabling  the  sea  to  cut  the  rocks  in  the  fash- 
ion in  which  it  has  scarfed  the  existing  shore-line. 
Up  to  the  level  of  a  thousand  feet  of  altitude  on 
Mount  Desert  the  proof  of  these  ancient  sea  margins 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  93 

appears  quite  indisputable.  Indeed,  an  assemblage  of 
the  observations  on  that  part  of  the  coast  of  Maine 
leads  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the  highest  point  on 
the  island  of  Mount  Desert,  which  rises  to  an  eleva- 
tion of  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty -five  feet  above  the 
present  mean-tide  mark,  was  for  a  brief  time  sub- 
merged beneath  the  sea  after  the  ice  disappeared 
from  its  summit. 

In  Labrador,  Packard  and  other  observers  have 
found  similar  evidence  of  submergence  to  the  depth 
of  more  than  one  thousand  feet ;  and  in  Greenland, 
as  before  remarked,  the  marine  stratified  deposits 
clearly  formed  since  the  last  extension  of  the  ice 
rise  to  yet  greater  altitudes.  There  are  reasons  to 
suspect  that  the  submergence  of  the  North  Atlantic 
sea-shore  of  the  continent  may  have  been  much 
greater  than  is  proven  by  the  records  of  old  sea-shore 
work  which  have  so  far  been  observed.  Thus,  on  the 
southern  and  eastern  flank  of  Mount  Wachusett,  at 
the  height  of  more  than  sixteen  hundred  feet  above 
the  sea,  there  are  apparent  traces  of  marine  action, 
shown  by  the  undercutting  of  the  rocks.  On  the 
southeastern  face  of  the  Catskills,  at  a  height  of  about 
twenty-two  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  there  are  in- 
dentations in  the  rocks  in  the  fashion  of  sea  caves, 
extending  in  for  a  distance  of  more  than  twenty  feet 
from  the  face  of  the  cliff;  and  below  the  level  of  these 
excavations,  which  cannot  well  be  accounted  for  ex- 
cept by  the  action  of  waves,  there  are  benches  of 
shingle  such  as  are  normally  to  be  found  beneath  the 


94  NATUEE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

level  of  the  water  along  an  ocean  coast-line.  It 
may  be  argued  that  possibly  in  the  case  of  the 
Wachusett  and  Catskill  section  these  cuttings  may 
have  been  accomplished  by  the  action  of  the  waves 
in  glacial  lakes  held  at  a  height  above  the  sea  by  a 
barrier  of  ice ;  but  although  this  is  a  possible  method 
of  accounting  for  them,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  to 
afford  a  probable  explanation  of  these  peculiar  feat- 
ures. The  excavations  are  too  extensive  to  be  the 
work  of  such  waves  as  would  originate  in  any  sheet 
of  water  impounded  by  the  ice.  Moreover,  they  in- 
dicate a  continuance  of  wave  action  which  cannot 
well  be  supposed  in  the  case  of  a  lake  basin  held 
high  above  the  level  of  the  sea  by  an  ice  barrier. 
As  is  well  known,  such  glacial  lakes  are  extremely 
impermanent  in  their  water-level,  and  almost  neces- 
sarily of  small  s.ize. 

Although  the  facts  are  not  yet  in  shape  to  permit 
us  to  frame  a  satisfactory  hypothesis  as  to  the  precise 
nature  of  continental  movements  during  and  at  the 
close  of  the  glacial  period,  they  warrant  us  in  assert- 
ing an  extreme  submergence  of  the  eastern  portion  of 
North  America  in  this  period  of  its  history.  More- 
over, the  observations  made  by  Gilbert  and  others 
on  the  terraces  about  the  great  lakes,  particularly 
those  of  Lake  Ontario  in  New  York,  show  in  a  beau- 
tifully clear  way  that  the  continent  was  at  the  close 
of  the  glacial  period  tilted  down  to  the  north  in  that 
part  of  its  surface,  the  descent  to  the  north,  though 
locally  somewhat  variable,  being  at  the  rate  of  about 


NATURE  AND  MAN  EST  AMERICA.  95 

three  feet  to  the  mile  as  contrasted  with  its  present 
altitude.  The  benches  formed  when  the  lake  was 
at  a  higher  level  than  at  present  now  rise  up  to  the 
northward  at  this  rate;  this  feature  can  only  be 
explained  by  supposing  that  the  continent  was  tilted 
downward  to  the  north  while  these  coast  benches 
were  formed.  The  same  feature  is  observable  all 
about  the  great  lakes  as  far  west  as  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior.  It  thus  appears  more  than  probable 
that  during  the  ice  time  the  northern  part  of  North 
America  was  depressed  so  that  its  surface  came 
pretty  generally  below  the  level  of  the  sea. 

Another  evidence  of  the  down-tilting  of  the  conti- 
nent to  the  north  is  afforded  by  the  streams  which 
flow  from  the  south  toward  the  north.  In  eastern 
Massachusetts  there  are  a  number  of  small  rivers  — 
the  Sudbury,  the  Concord,  the  Nashua,  and  the  Ne- 
ponset  —  which  flow  northward ;  while  the  greater 
part  of  the  rivers  of  New  England  flow  in  a  directly 
opposite  course,  having  their  head-waters  in  the 
north  and  their  mouths  to  the  south.  Now,  we  ob- 
serve that  those  streams  which  flow  from  north 
southward  always  have  steep  channels.  Every  river 
in  New  England  having  this  direction  of  course  lies 
for  a  considerable  part  of  its  path  in  a  rocky  bed,  and 
descends  rapidly  toward  the  sea.  Those  north- 
flowing  rivers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  marshes  and 
other  encumbering  deposits  which  lie  between  the 
bottoms  of  the  streams  and  their  original  founda- 
tions.    It  is  evident,  from  these  facts  that  since  the 


96  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

channels  of  the  rivers  were  excavated  partly  before 
and  partly  since  the  glacial  period,  the  land  in  which 
they  lie  has .  risen,  the  northern  part  rising  more 
than  the  southern,  in  such  a  fashion  that  the  natural 
fall  of  the  stream  has  been  interfered  with  by  the 
diminution  in  their  rate  of  descent.  Similar  evi- 
dence of  up-tilting  in  the  northern  part  of  the  conti- 
nent may  be  found  in  other  streams  than  those  just 
mentioned  which  likewise  flow  toward  the  Arctic 
regions. 

We  thus  perceive  that  there  is  a  large  body  of  evi- 
dence to  indicate  the  elevation  of  the  northern  part 
of  the  continent  since  the  close  of  the  glacial  period ; 
there  is  also  sufficient  proof  to  show  that  the  shore- 
lines were,  immediately  antecedent  to  the  ice  time, 
near  the  same  position  that  they  now  occupy;  we  thus 
have  to  believe  that  when  the  ice  was  imposed,  the 
field  it  covered  sank  down,  recovering  its  position 
after  the  glacial  sheet  had  passed  away. 

As  long  as  geologists  held  to  the  notion  that  the 
continents  were  rigidly  supported  in  their  present 
position,  it  was  difficult  to  account  for  this  peculiar 
feature  of  glacial  submergence ;  but  partly  from  the 
study  of  the  movements  which  take  place  in  moun- 
tain growth,  but  in  larger  measure  from  observa- 
tion on  other  movements  of  the  continental  masses, 
geologists  have  now  pretty  generally  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  continents  are  not  rigidly  upheld  in 
their  existing  attitudes,  supported  firmly  from  below, 
but  that  they  are  what  we  may  term  elastic  arches, 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  97 

dependent  for  their  position  at  any  one  time  on  a 
balance  between  the  pressures  which  urge  them  up- 
ward and  their  own  weight,  which  bears  them  down- 
ward toward  the  centre  of  the  earth.  It  is  now  the 
opinion  of  those  best  acquainted  with  the  facts  that  if 
we  could  at  any  point,  say,  over  the  surface  of  an 
area  a  hundred  miles  square,  lay  down  on  the  earth 
a  bed  of  sand  a  thousand  feet  in  thickness,  almost 
immediately  we  would  find  the  district  so  covered  by 
the  new  deposit  borne  slowly  downward  until  the 
subsidence  was  almost  equivalent  to  the  thickness  of 
the  supposed  accumulation.  There  are  very  many 
facts  serving  to  affirm  this  view  as  to  continental 
movements  which  cannot  be  noted  here.  It  may  be 
remarked  in  passing  that  in  delta  regions  where 
there  is  a  constant  accumulation  of  strata,  we  nor- 
mally find  evidences  of  such  a  down -sinking  as  the 
theory  supposes  would  take  place. 

We  are  therefore  able  to  account  for  the  subsi- 
dence produced  during  a  glacial  time  by  the  simple 
conception  that  the  continental  surface  was  borne 
downward  by  the  weight  of  water  in  the  form  of  ice 
imposed  upon  it;  and  as  the  ice  sheet  can  fairly  be 
presumed  to  have  had  a  thickness  of  something  like 
two  miles,  it  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  the  con- 
tinent was  depressed  over  the  area  covered  by  the  ice 
sheet  to  the  amount  of  several  thousand  feet,  sink- 
ing down  in  proportion  to  the  thickness  of  the  icy 
covering  in  the  various  parts  of  the  field  it  occupied. 

It  is  easy  on  theoretical  grounds  to  see  that  the 

7 


98  NATUEE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

northern  half  of  the  continent  of  North  America 
could  not  well  be  depressed  to  the  amount  of  some 
thousands  of  feet  without  a  coincident  elevation  of 
other  regions  to  the  southward.  If  the  continent  be 
an  elastic  arch  the  crown  of  which  rises  above  the 
surface  of  the  sea,  it  appears  almost  a  necessary  con- 
clusion that  if  we  bear  down  part  of  it,  another  por- 
tion would  be  uplifted.  It  does  not  do  to  trust  our 
conclusions  to  such  a  priori  reasoning:  we  must  un- 
dertake to  review  the  evidence  to  see  what  proof  we 
have  of  a  recent  emergence  corresponding  to  the 
down-sinking  which  took  place  in  high  latitudes 
when  the  glacial  sheet  was  imposed  upon  the  land. 
It  is  much  easier  to  obtain  evidence  that  a  land  re- 
cently beneath  the  sea  has  been  elevated  above  the 
ocean  than  to  find  proof  that  a  region  which  has  a 
short  time  ago  been  above  the  sea  has  sunk  beneath 
its  depths.  If  we  could  explore  the  bottom  in  a  sat- 
isfactory way,  we  should  doubtless  find  on  the  sur- 
face which  had  recently  subsided  below  the  ocean  a 
system  of  partly  obliterated  river  valleys  and  other 
marks  to  indicate  the  exposure  to  atmospheric  ero- 
sion; but  we  know  the  bottom  of  the  sea  even  in 
shallow  water  only  by  the  plummet,  —  that  is,  most 
imperfectly.  The  form  of  even  the  best  explored 
portions  of  the  sea  floor  is  most  inadequately  known. 
Despite  the  difficulties  of  inquiry,  there  are  some 
lines  of  evidence  which  appear  to  support  the  hy- 
pothesis that  the  southern  portion  of  North  America 
was  uplifted  during  the  time  when  its  northern  part 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  99 

was  deeply  depressed.  In  part  this  evidence  comes 
from  the  distribution  of  animal  and  plant  life,  and 
in  part  from  physical  characters  exhibited  by  the 
southern  part  of  North  America. 

The  evidence  from  organic  life  which  seems  to 
bear  on  this  question  is  obtained  by  a  study  of  the 
living  creatures  on  the  West  India  Islands.  This 
great  archipelago  is  composed  of  many  distinct  land- 
masses,  and  is  separated  from  North  America  by  a 
rather  deep  arm  of  the  sea.  To  unite  Cuba  with 
the  Florida  district  would  require  the  elevation  of 
the  sea  bottom  of  about  two  thousand  feet.  In 
a  similar  manner  the  great  islands  of  the  ocean 
stretching  from  Cuba  to  the  eastward  are  separated 
from  one  another  by  deep  passages  generally  trav- 
ersed by  strong  marine  currents.  If  now  we  com- 
pare the  living  creatures  of  these  several  islands 
.with  the  life  on  the  mainland  of  North  and  South 
America,  we  are  struck  with  the  fact  that  very  few 
of  the  islands  have  any  great  peculiarity  in  the  or- 
ganic beings  which  occupy  them.  There  are  some 
species  of  vertebrates  which  are  in  a  measure  pecu- 
liar to  these  detached  masses  of  land,  the  insects  or 
the  land  mollusca  exhibit  many  localized  peculiari- 
ties ;  but  the  organic  life  of  each  of  the  islands  is 
almost  as  nearly  related  the  one  to  the  other  as  we 
would  expect  to  find  it  in  any  connected  area  of  land 
of  like  extent.  There  is  probably  no  more  differ- 
ence from  point  to  point  than  we  ghould  find  in  an 
equally  extensive  region  of  a  similarly  varied  character 


100  NATURE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

on  the  surface  of  any  continent.     Alexander  Agassiz 
and  others  have  noted  the  curious  relation  of  this  life 
of  the  Great  Antilles  to  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
If  we  compare  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  Antilles 
with  those  of  the  East  Indies,  the  great  archipelago 
extending  from  Sumatra  to  Australia,   we  perceive 
at  once  a  wide  difference  in  the  distribution  of  life. 
The  passages  between  the  islands  of  the  East  Indian 
archipelago  are  no  wider  or  deeper  than  those  which 
separate  the  West   India  islands  from  one  another 
and  the  mainland.       In  fact,    we  may  say  that  the 
islands  of  the  Antilles  are  more  divided  the  one  from 
the  other  than  are  those  of  the  Indian  archipelago; 
yet  in  the  last-named  group  of  islands  almost  every 
considerable  isle  has  many  peculiar  forms  of  life; 
while  in  the  West   Indies  the  vertebrates  and   the 
greater  part  of  the  other  animals  are  singularly  akin 
on  the  different  isles.     The  only  way  in  which  we 
can  satisfactorily  account  for  the  wide  difference  in 
the  condition  between   these   islands   is  to  suppose 
that  in  the  case  of  the  East  Indies  the  several  fields 
have  long  remained  unconnected  with  one  another  or 
with  the  mainlands  of  Australia  or  Asia;   while  in 
the  West  Indies  the  connection  between  the  large 
several  islands  and  the  adjacent  continent  of  South 
America  has  recently  been  completely   established. 
Thus  the  biological  evidence  is  in  favor  of  the  suppo- 
sition that  in  comparatively  recent  times,  possibly 
during  the   glacial   period,   a   sufficiently  extensive 
elevation  took  place  in  this  region  to  bring  what  are 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  101 

now  distant  islands  into  a  more  or  less  complete, 
union  with  that  continent,  and  over  this  long  ridge 
such  a  mixture  of  the  living  creatures  took  place  as 
would  provide  the  several  parts  of  the  archipelago 
with  inhabitants  not  differing  greatly  in  the  several 
islands.  After  discussing  the  evidence,  I  have  been 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  this  supposition  of  a 
land-bridge  uniting  the  Antilles  in  a  time  not  very 
remote  is  of  itself  and  quite  without  other  related 
facts  a  warrantable  presumption,  though  we  cannot 
prove  that  this  union  existed  during  the  glacial 
period. 

The  physical  evidence  of  a  very  recent  greater  ex- 
tension of  the  land  in  the  southern  part  of  North 
America  is  fragmentary  and  of  a  rather  indecisive 
nature,  though  it  points  strongly  in  the  direction 
of  the  hypothesis  above  set  forth.  The  first  point  to 
note  is  that  all  the  larger  streams  which  debouch 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  north  and  east  of  the  Rio 
Grande  appear  to  flow  for  a  considerable  distance  in 
their  lower  parts  in  valleys  once  deeply  excavated, 
which  have  been  in  large  measure  filled  by  the  debris 
which  has  been  accumulated  in  them  in  very  recent 
times.  Thus  borings  at  New  Orleans  have  shown 
that  the  alluvial  deposits  of  the  Mississippi  extend 
for  several  hundred  feet  below  the  level  of  that 
town.  All  the  way  up  to  the  junction  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  the  river  flows  in  a  broad  low-walled 
gorge  which  appears  to  have  been  excavated  when 
the  surface  of  the  country  was  at  a  much  higher 


102  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

level  than  at  the  present  time.  Following  up  the 
valleys  of  the  Mississippi  proper,  the  Missouri,  and 
the  Ohio,  particularh^  the  last-named  stream,  which 
is  best  known  in  its  details  of  structure,  there  is 
evidence  here  and  there  that  the  present  stream-bed 
is  above  its  old  position. 

Where  rivers  debouch  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  or 
into  the  Atlantic  in  regions  south  of  New  York,  we 
observe  that  they  terminate  at  the  sea,  except  in  the 
case  of  the  Mississippi,  in  broad  re-entrant  delta- 
shaped  indentations  which  are  not  at  present  the 
seats  of  erosion,  and  where  the  erosion  which  formed 
them  could  not  well  have  taken  place  save  when  the 
land  was  above  its  present  attitude.  The  best  exam- 
ples of  these  re-entrants  are  found  in  the  Delaware 
and  Chesapeake  bays  and  in  Pamlico  and  Albe- 
marle sounds.  These  facts  are  best  reconcilable  with 
the  supposition  that  recently  and  for  a  considerable 
time  these  valleys  discharged  their  waters  into  the 
ocean  on  a  lower  plane  than  that  which  their  streams 
now  debouch  into  the  ocean. 

Last  of  all,  we  note  the  fact  that  throughout  the 
Gulf  States  borings  made  in  the  rocks  penetrate  for 
the  depth  of  several  hundred  feet  into  strata  contain- 
ing fresh  water.  In  northern  Florida  it  is  a  common 
device  to  bore  down  a  hundred  or  two  feet  below  the 
surface,  or  in  certain  places  to  a  greater  depth,  and 
thus  obtain  a  copious  supply  of  fresh  water,  slightly 
charged  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  carbonic 
acid  gas,  which  impels  the  fluid  upward  to  the  height 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  103 

of  sixty  feet  or  so  above  the  surface,  provided  the 
pipes  be  led  to  that  altitude.  In  the  great  well 
recently  bored  at  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  which  at- 
tained the  depth  of  thirteen  hundred  feet  below  the 
level  of  the  sea,  this  fresh-water  zone  continued  down- 
ward in  the  excavation  to  the  depth  of  about  nine 
hundred  feet.  At  this  point  salt  water  was  sud- 
denly encountered,  and  from  that  station  downward 
to  the  bottom  of  the  well  the  water  which  entered 
the  well  was  clearly  such  as  is  built  into  rocks  when 
they  are  formed  beneath  the  floor  of  the  sea.  In- 
asmuch as  these  beds  below  the  sea-level  in  the  re- 
gion about  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  contain  rain-water 
and  not  the  original  waters  of  the  ocean  m  which 
they  were  deposited,  -  it  seems  necessary  to  suppose 
that  since  the  time  of  their  deposition  they  have 
been  for  a  considerable  period  elevated  above  the  sea 
m  order  to  afford  the  original  waters  of  deposition  an 
opportunity  to  drain  away.  It  does  not  appear  possi- 
ble for  the  rain-waters  to  penetrate  into  the  deeper 
strata  and  displace  the  sea-water  which  recently 
filled  the  cavities,  against  the  pressure  which  pre- 
vails there.  Nothing  short  of  elevation  would  ac- 
complish the  change.  That  this  is  the  case  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  very  ancient  Silurian  rocks  of 
the  Ohio  valley  contain  everywhere  below  the  level  of 
draining  streams  the  original  salt  waters  which  were 
buried  in  the  strata  at  the  time  when  they  were 
formed. 

This  and  other  evidence  seems  to  point  to  the  con- 


104  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

elusion  that  the  southern  portion  of  North  America 
has  recently  been  elevated  above  the  sea-level,  the 
elevation  most  likely  taking  place  at  the  time  of 
great  submergence  which  the  ice  sheet  brought  upon 
the  northern  part  of  the  continent. 

One  of  the  most  important  evidences  as  to  the  re- 
cent greater  elevation  of  the  southern  portion  of  our 
continent  is  found  in  the  fact  that  along  the  coast  of 
Florida,  both  on  its  eastern  or  Atlantic  and  its  west- 
ern or  Gulf  faces,  there  rise  from  beneath  the  sea  a 
number  of  great  submarine  springs  which  discharge 
vast  tides  of  fresh  water  gathered  upon  the  land 
through  openings  upon  the  floor  of  the  sea.  Perhaps 
the  most  noteworthy  of  these  fresh-water  oceanic 
fountains  is  that  which  finds  its  way  to  the  surface 
of  the  sea  off  the  eastern  coast  a  few  miles  to  the 
south  of  St.  Augustine  and  three  or  four  miles  from 
the  coast-line.  At  this  point,  if  we  may  trust  the 
accounts  of  veracious  observers,  a  considerable  river 
rises  from  the  bottom,  the  fresh  water  on  account  of 
its  lightness  rushing  to  the  surface  of  the  sea  with 
such  speed  and  volume  that  it  makes  it  difficult  for 
a  boat  to  keep  its  place  in  the  centre  of  the  fountain. 
From  the  accounts  which  I  have  received  it  seems 
evident  that  the  discharge  must  be  at  the  rate  of  some 
thousand  cubic  feet  a  minute.  Similar  springs,  though 
apparently  of  less  volume,  are  said  to  break  up  to  the 
surface  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  at  some  distance  from 
the  coast-line.  As  submarine  springs  would  neces- 
sarily have  a  considerable  volume  before  they  would 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  105 

manifest  themselves  at  the  surface,  it  seems  most 
probable  that  these  fresh-water  streams  which  emerge 
from  the  sea  bottom  along  this  coast  are  of  frequent 
occurrence. 

The  only  way  in  which  we  can  account  for  the 
formation  of  these  great  sea  springs  is  by  the  follow- 
ing supposition.  The  greater  part  of  the  peninsula 
of  Florida  is  composed  of  limestone  rocks  which  are 
so  massive  and  pure  that  they  readily  become  exca- 
vated into  caverns.  Wherever  the  surface  of  this 
area  rises  even  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the  shore, 
we  find  that  the  streams  immediately  leave  the  sur- 
face and  flow  in  subterranean  channels.  At  a  great 
number  of  points  within  the  peninsula  we  may  ob- 
serve these  underground  rivers,  where  by  one  chance 
and  another  they  have  been  forced  to  break  their  way 
to  the  light  of  day.  They  not  unfrequently  pour 
forth  a  tide  which  without  the  addition  of  tributary 
waters  forms  a  considerable  river.  During  the  time 
when  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  as  well  as  the  neigh- 
boring lands  in  this  part  of  the  continent,  stood  at  a 
much  greater  height  than  at  present,  these  under- 
ground streams  doubtless  excavated  their  channels  to 
levels  very  much  beneath  the  existing  plain  of  the 
ocean.  They  probably  discharged  their  waters  at 
the  margin  of  the  sea  along  the  line  which  is  now  far 
to  the  eastward  of  the  shore.  When  the  land  sank 
down  in  the  last  great  movement  of  this  part  of  the 
continent,  the  exits  of  these  cavern  waters  were 
brought  much  below  the  ocean  level.     Where,  how- 


106  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

ever,  the  cavern  walls  were  moderately  tight,  and  the 
land  at  a  considerable  height  above  the  sea,  the  exit 
might  be  kept  open,  and  the  submarine  streams  still 
flow  through  their  own  channels.  It  seems  quite 
impossible  to  suppose  that  any  such  underground 
water-ways  as  now  produce  these  ocean  springs  could 
have  been  formed  in  the  present  attitude  of  the  land. 
The  foremost  object  of  our  inquiry  is  to  ascertain 
the  conditions  of  the  continents  with  reference  to  the 
life  for  which  they  afford  the  theatre ;  the  conclusions 
to  which  we  have  now  attained  are  of  great  impor- 
tance to  our  aim.  They  serve  to  show  that  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America,  though  subject  to  great 
oscillations,  probably  preserves  something  like  its 
present  area  and  isolation  through  all  these  changes 
of  form.  When  a  portion  sinks  down,  another  por- 
tion rises ;  and  so  while  the  life  is  pushed  about,  com- 
pelled to  migrate  from  one  field  to  another,  and 
forced  to  undergo  the  contentions  which  arise  from 
these  geographic  accidents,  it  is  never  destroyed 
by  the  submersion  of  the  whole  land.  A  similar 
method  of  inquiry  would  prove  even  more  clearly 
than  we  can  show  in  the  case  of  North  America  that 
the  continents  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  South 
America  have  never  been  altogether  beneath  the  sea 
since  the  time  they  first  appeared  above  its  waters. 
The  alterations  in  the  land  forms  of  those  areas  have 
been  far  greater  than  on  the  American  continent, 
but  they  have  followed  the  same  law  of  successive 
changes  in  the  position  and  form  of  the  land^  those 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.      107 

changes  at  no  time  leading  to  the  general  destruction 
of  the  theatre  occupied  by  the  higher  air-breathing 
life. 

If  I  have  rightly  interpreted  the  facts  of  conti- 
nental movement  during  the  glacial  period,  they  indi- 
cate that  however  the  continent  of  North  America 
may  be  deformed  by  temporary  conditions,  the  land 
tends  to  retain  its  broad  expanse,  so  that  it  affords  a 
permanent  field  for  the  organic  species  which  have 
been  bred  upon  it. 

Our  next  step  is  to  trace  the  successive  changes 
which  lead  to  the  formation  of  a  continent,  in  order 
that  as  far  as  our  knowledge  may  admit,  we  may 
perceive  the  conditions  of  land  life  at  the  successive 
stages  of  the  development  which  the  greater  lands 
undergo. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Nature  of  Faunae  and  Flora;.  —  Migration  of  these  Organic  Armies.  — 
Individualization  of  Continents.  —  Condition  of  Faunte  and  Floras  in 
Cambrian  Time;  in  Successive  Periods. — Effect  of  Growth  of  Moun- 
tains; Effect  of  Elevation  at  Beginning  of  Coal-measures.  —  Croll's  Hy- 
pothesis of  Climate  Change.  —  Conditions  of  Continental  Growth  in 
Europe. -^  Influence  of  Geographic  Conditions  on  the  Development  of 
Life.  —  Conditions  of  last  Glacial  Period.  —  Relation  of  Continents  to 
Marine  Currents. — Uniform  Growth  of  the  Earth's  Features.  —  Uni- 
formity in  Condition  of  Atmosphere.  —  Climatal  Variations;  Delicacy  of 
Adjustment  thereof;  its  Measure. —Effect  of  Variations  of  Gulf  Stream 
on  Extension  of  Ice.  —  Review  and  Conclusion. 


The  evolution  of  life  from  lower  to  higher  planes 
depends  in  part  at  least  on  the  differentiation  of  or- 
ganic species  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  on  the  or- 
ganization of  these  species  into  great  communities, 
which  we  term  faunae  and  florae,  and  on  the  conten- 
tion of  these  assemblages  of  ordered  combatants  with 
one  another.  There  are  thus  two  modes  of  battle  be- 
tween organic  forms :  within  the  same  ranks  —  that 
is,  within  the  limits  of  each  fauna  and  flora  —  the 
species  are  contending  against  each  other  to  deter- 
mine which  is  the  fittest  to  survive.  One  of  the  most 
surprising  and  as  yet  least  considered  effects  of  this 
regional  division  of  life  is  found  in  the  perfect  inter- 
action of  the  species  within  a  realm,  —  an  interaction 
which,  though  determined  by  the  laws  of  combat,  is  yet 
helpful  to  all  the  forms  which  win  by  it. 


NATURE  AND  xMAN   IN  AMERICA.  109 

Examining  the  life  history  of  any  species,  we  find 
that  it  has  a  profit  both  from  its  enemies  and  its 
friends,  —  from  the  foes  which  prey  upon  it  and  com- 
pel it  to  remain  strong  and  grow  stronger  as  the  price 
of  life,  and  from  the  friends  which  give  it  shelter  or 
provide  it  with  food.  The  result  is  that  each  organic 
assemblage  becomes  in  time  a  great  and  well-selected 
army,  prepared  to  do  battle  as  a  host  with  the  other 
similarly  perfected  aggregations.  The  Darwinians 
generally  have  neglected  this  combat  between  the 
great  armies  of  life.  They  have  considered  only  the 
contention  between  the  individual  species.  The  pa- 
leontological  record  shows  us,  however,  that  in  the 
progress  of  life  the  winning  is  largely  accomplished 
by  the  massive  migration  of  these  vast  cohorts  which 
constitute  the  faunal  and  floral  assemblages  from  one 
region  to  another.  As  they  move  in  these  marches, 
to  which  they  are  compelled  by  geographic  modifica- 
tions and  the  climatal  changes  which  attend  such 
alterations,  they  overwhelm  the  weaker  assemblages. 
In  most  cases  when  a  strong  fauna  or  flora  invades 
a  new  clime  it  adopts  a  portion  of  the  indigines,  — 
those  forms  which  have  a  peculiar  strength  and  ex- 
pel or  destroy  the  weaker  forms.  In  all  the  circum- 
stances of  their  movement  they  much  resemble  those 
migrations  of  human  races  which  occurred  in  the 
early  centuries  of  our  era. 

These  massive  migrations  of  organic  armies  can 
be  effected  only  by  the  creation  of  a  bridge  of  land  or 
channel  of  water  which,   according  as  it  belongs  in 


110  NATURE  AND  IVIAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  sea  or  on  the  land,  serves  to  afford  passage  for 
the  host.  The  chance  carriage  of  single  species 
floating  across  the  sea  on  rafts  of  ice  or  the  trees 
torn  out  by  rivers  rarely  affects  any  important  im- 
plantation of  a  form  from  one  fauna  within  that  of 
another.  A  solitary  individual  or  even  a  consider- 
able assemblage  of  the  same  species  coming  into  a 
foreign  region  is  likely  to  find  that  its  habits  of  life, 
its  methods  of  growth,  its  ways  of  finding  shelter  from 
the  elements,  the  quality  of  its  food,  and  its  other 
needs  are  not  met  in  the  new  station,  and  so  it  is 
tolerably  sure  to  perish.  To  be  successful,  in  a  word, 
migrations  have  to  be  massive.  The  species  must 
usually  take  their  beneficent  associates  in  the  equa- 
tion of  life  with  them,  to  secure  an  eff'ective  foothold 
in  new  countries.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  the 
larger  battles  of  life  are  not  single  combats,  but  con- 
tests between  consolidated  armies. 

We  may  perceive  this  point  more  clearly  by  recur- 
ring to  our  imaginary  but  very  possible  instance  of 
the  bridge  between  Australia  and  southern  Asia. 
The  passage  which  divides  the  realms  of  life  of 
Australia  and  India  is  very  narrow.  It  consists  of 
the  straits  of  Lombok,  a  narrow  opening,  only  fifteen 
miles  in  width,  between  the  islands  of  Bali  and 
Lombok.  There  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  the 
manifold  accidents  of  transportation  have  frequently 
conveyed  solitary  forms  from  India  into  the  realm  of 
the  weaker  Australian  life.  Thus  the  larger  cats  of 
India,  its  herbivora,  and  other  of  its  high-grade  ani- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  Ill 

mals  which  can  swim  for  long  distances  may  have 
been  often  carried  across  this  narrow  barrier.  That 
they  have  not  found  a  foothold  in  the  Australian 
realm  is  doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  they  did  not 
secure  when  they  arrived  on  the  southern  continent 
the  environment  which  suits  their  habitual  needs. 
Accustomed  to  pursue  certain  sorts  of  food,  they 
found  that  food  wanting,  and  within  the  lifetime  of 
a  single  individual  or  even  in  that  of  a  family  there 
may  not  be  an  opportunity  to  become  habituated  to 
the  new  and  strange  surroundings,  and  thereby  secure 
a  chance  to  maintain  existence ;  but  if  there  were  a 
wide  ridge  of  land  formed  between  these  two  con- 
tinents of  Australia  and  Asia,  the  Asiatic  life,  vastly 
more  energetic  or  prepotent  than  that  of  the  southern 
realm,  would  move  upon  it  as  a  conquering  army. 
p]ach  species  would  give  the  needed  and  accustomed 
support  to  the  others,  and  in  a  very  short  time  they 
would  occupy  the  Australian  continent  and  drive  out 
the  lowly  organized  because  ancient  forms.  In  a 
single  geological  period,  if  these  countries  were  left 
without  interference  from  man,  we  should  probably 
find  a  great  revolution  effected  in  the  organic  history 
of  Australia,  thousands  of  species  would  disappear, 
and  only  a  relatively  small  number  be  adopted  into 
the  new  organic  order. 

The  individualization  of  continents  is  therefore  a 
problem  of  the  utmost  interest  to  the  physiographer. 
By  dividing  the  earth's  surface  into  separate  fields 
of  land  and  sea,  giving  to  each  its  peculiarities  of 


112  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AIMERICA. 

environment,  and  only  occasionally  permitting  inter- 
course with  other  areas,  the  land-masses  serve  to  or- 
ganize the  separate  armies  of  life  in  air  or  sea,  each 
within  its  distinct  barriers,  giving  them  an  opportu- 
nity to  contend  against  each  other  in  the  sub- 
sequent changes  which  the  geographical  develop- 
ment of  the  earth's  surface  brings  about.  I  propose, 
therefore,  rapidly  to  consider  the  processes  of  growth 
of  continents,  and  the  concurrent  effect  of  this  growth 
history  on  the  evolution  of  organic  forms.  Unfortu- 
nately in  this  inquiry  we  shall  be  dealing  with  very 
incomplete  information.  We  can  obtain  only  a 
glimpse  of  the  principles  which  control  these  great 
changes  of  life's  theatre,  and  of  the  creatures  which 
play  their  part  on  the  stage. 

Going  back  to  the  earliest  epochs  of  the  earth's 
history  of  which  we  have  a  comprehensible  record, 
to  the  time  when  life  first  appeared  in  the  rocks,  we 
find  that  lands  were  already  in  existence.  The  con- 
tinents were  at  that  time  foreshadowed  by  a  series  of 
insular  masses,  —  archipelagoes  we  may  term  them, 
—  which  were  probably,  in  this  continent  at  least, 
grouped  in  the  northern  part  of  the  present  land  area, 
and  extended  for  some  distance  south  along  the  lines 
of  the  greater  mountain  axes.  For  convenience  we 
shall  limit  our  inquiries  to  the  continent  of  North 
America,  for  the  reason  that  in  this  land-mass  Ave 
have  simpler  and  more  interpretable  conditions  than 
are  exhibited  in  the  other  great  lands. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Cambrian  time,  the  ear- 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  118 

liest  age  concerning  which  we  have  any  clear  account, 
the  continent  of  North  America  —  so  far  as  we  have 
interpreted  its  history,  which  is  as  yet  imperfectly  — 
consisted  of  a  considerable  land-mass,  and  occupied 
probably  the  greater  part  of  the  area  of  Labrador, 
Canada  proper,  and  a  portion  of  the  northwest  part 
of  the  existing  land.  This,  the  largest  insular  mass 
of  the  ancient  continental  archipelago,  was  in  the 
form  of  a  rudely  V-shaped  body.  On  the  west,  in 
the  region  of  the  Cordilleras  of  North  America,  lay 
a  series  of  great  islands,  or  possibly  masses  of  con- 
nected land,  extending  probably  from  southern  Mexico 
to  the  Arctic  Circle.  On  the  east  and  south  of  the 
extensive  Laurentian  land  lay  another  strip  of  isl- 
ands, possibly  almost  as  great  in  area  as  Madagascar, 
extending  from  southern  Canada  to  Alabama,  or  per- 
haps yet  farther  south.  This  Appalachian  land  was 
probably  riven  at  one  or  two  points  by  passages  of 
considerable  width,  one  of  which  remains  still  as  a 
great  valley  occupied  by  the  Hudson  River.  There 
were  probably  yet  other  detached  patches  of  Cam- 
brian land,  one  of  which  lay  in  the  region  of  the 
Ozark  Mountains.  There  were  possibly  yet  others 
in  the  little  known  country  north  of  the  Laurentian 
district.  We  know  these  regions  were  islands  by 
the  fact  that  we  find  their  sediments  in  the  recog- 
nizable form  of  pebbles  accumulated  along  the  Cam- 
brian shore-lines  which  extend  around  their  flanks. 
Among  these  islands  of  the  Cordilleran  and  Appa- 
lachian  districts   there   were   extensive   seas  which 

8 


114  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

probably  were  of  less  depth  than  the  outlying  waters 
of  the  greater  ocean,  for  the  growth  of  the  mountain- 
ous elevations  which  constitute  these  islands  had 
apparently  been  attended  by  a  general  uplift  of  the 
broad  basalar  folds  of  the  mountain  ridges  in  the 
manner  which  we  have  already  described;  and  by 
the  formation  and  confluence  of  these  folds  the  shape 
of  the  continent  was  already  dimly  foreshadowed. 
All  these  ancient  islands  of  the  North  American 
archipelago  seem  to  have  had  a  mountainous 
structure. 

This,  the  archipelagic  state  of  the  continent,  con- 
tinued for  a  number  of  geological  periods ;  it  did  not 
definitely  begin  to  disappear  until  the  dawn  of  that 
stage  in  the  earth's  history  which  we  term  the  Car- 
boniferous. We  have  no  evidence  as  to  the  land  life 
of  these  archipelagoes  during  the  Cambrian  period ; 
but  in  the  next  succeeding  important  division  of  the 
earth's  history,  in  the  Silurian  time,  we  find  some 
proof  that  the  land  was  already  occupied  by  charac- 
teristic aerial  vegetation,  forms  related  to  our  living 
ferns,  and  that  insects  of  tolerably  high  organization 
closely  akin  to  our  living  scorpions  dwelt  upon  its 
surface.  The  scanty  fossils  which  afford  this  evi- 
dence are  doubtless  the  trifling  remains  of  what  was 
an  abundant  aerial  life  of  a  lowly  organization. 

Before  we  consider  the  next  stage  in  continental 
development,  that  in  which  the  archipelago  begins 
to  merge  into  consolidated  land-masses,  it  is  worth 
our  while  to  turn  aside  for  the  moment  to  consider 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  IW 

something  of  the  then  existing  conditions  of  land 
life  as  compared  with  those  which  at  a  later  stage 
came  about  on  the  consolidation  of  the  lands.  Re- 
viewing the  existing  lands  of  the  earth's  surface, 
those  which  have  developed  in  the  oceanic  waters  at 
points  remote  from  the  shore,  in  positions  whereunto 
land  life  would  with  difficulty  find  access,  we  are 
struck  with  the  fact  that  very  few  important  species 
have  developed  on  these  areas,  although  many  of 
them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Azores,  have  been  for 
some  geological  periods  separated  from  the  neigh- 
boring mainland.  The  fact  appears  to  be  that  on 
islands  the  conditions  which  favor  the  rapid  evolu- 
tion of  species  do  not  occur.  While  they  received 
as  tenants  chance  contributions  from  the  land  life  of 
the  neighboring  areas,  the  contention  between  these 
forms  does  not  seem  calculated  to  lead  to  rapid  ad- 
v^ance ;  and  we  are  justified  by  the  facts  in  the  pre- 
sumption that  island  life,  from  its  very  isolation, 
from  the  lack  of  combat  which  prevails  there,  from 
the  insufficient  reaction  between  form  and  form,  due 
to  the  paucity  of  species,  is  less  favored  in  the  con- 
ditions which  lead  to  its  advance  than  life  on  the 
continental  masses. 

Knowing  very  little  of  the  land  life  during  the 
ages  which  preceded  the  Carboniferous,  we  turn  to 
the  distribution  of  marine  faun^  for  indications  as  to 
the  division  in  the  earth's  life  into  realms  which  the 
gradual  growth  of  the  several  continents  was  then 
bringing  about.     Imperfect  as  was  the  original  divi- 


116       NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

sion  of  the  earth's  surface  in  this  early  stage  of  its 
history,  the  seas  had  already  been  sufficiently  parted 
into  distinct  fields  of  organic  development  to  give  us 
a  certain  faunal  division  in  the  life  which  tenanted 
them.  Although  there  is  an  interesting  likeness 
among  the  fossils  of  the  Cambrian  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  —  in  Australia,  Asia,  North  America, 
and  Europe,  —  we  already  find  that  the  species  of 
the  different  regions  are  generally  distinct.  The 
genera  are  usually  the  same  in  all  the  faunal  realms 
of  this  age,  —  that  is,  we  find  the  faunae  in  the  first 
stage  of  their  differentiation;  there  is,  perhaps,  not 
the  one  hundredth  part  of  the  difference  between  the 
Australian,  Cambrian,  or  Silurian  and  that  of  Eng- 
land, which  we  find  at  the  present  time  in  the  modern 
inhabitants  of  the  sea  about  the  British  Isles  and  of 
the  Australian  coast.  At  present  there  are  hundreds 
of  genera,  scores  of  families,  and  many  orders  of 
animals  which  exist  in  one  region  which  are  wanting 
in  the  other ;  in  other  words,  the  faunal  differentia- 
tion at  this  early  stage  of  the  earth's  history  is  in 
a  measure  proportionate  to  the  geographic  variety 
which  had  been  instituted  at  that  period  in  the 
differentiation  of  the  earth's  surface  into  land  areas 
and  sea  basins. 

In  the  Silurian  period,  extending  from  the  Pots- 
dam sandstone  up  through  to  the  base  of  the  Devo- 
nian, we  find  with  the  progressive  growth  of  the  land 
barriers  the  marine  forms  becoming  better  delimited 
into  provinces  and  faunae ;  but  it  is  not  until  a  much 


NATUKE   AND   MAIS'   IN  AMERICA.  117 

later  day  that  we  approach  the  great  isolation  which 
now  characterizes  the  marine  life  of  the  different 
parts  of  the  shore-lines  about  the  continents. 

The  processes  of  mountain  growth  which  in  the 
beginning  gave  us  the  mountainous  islands  of  the 
Cambrian  Sea  led,  through  its  continuance  and  the 
development  of  the  basalar  elevations  which  appear 
to  be  a  general  accompaniment  of  mountain  growth, 
to  the  emergence,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Carboni- 
ferous period,  of  the  widespread  land  areas  occupying 
the  portion  of  North  America  east  of  the  Cordilleras, 
and  also  of  large  areas  of  Europe  and  Asia.  The 
upward  growth  of  Europe  and  North  America  appears 
to  have  been  in  a  general  way  concurrent,  and  the 
coincidence  appears  to  be  in  some  manner  due  to 
their  neighboring  positions.  The  land  areas  which 
came  into  being  in  the  form  of  broad  plains  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Carboniferous  time  on  our  conti- 
nent were  singularly  widespread,  and  relatively  little 
broken  by  mountain  ranges.  On  the  eastern  side  of 
the  continent  the  Appalachian  mountain  axis  made 
a  division  of  the  newly  elevated  plain-land  into  a 
number  of  separate  fields,  those  of  the  Mississippi 
valley  and  some  level  areas  perhaps  of  less  extent 
along  the  Atlantic  shore.  As  soon  as  the  plain-lands 
of  the  Carboniferous  period  were  elevated  above  the 
sea,  they  were  occupied  by  vegetation  of  a  lowly 
order,  —  the  ancestors  or  kindred  of  our  ferns,  horse- 
tails, grasses,  and  rushes,  which  had  been  develop- 
ing on  the  continental  islands  for  a  great  period, 


118      NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

indeed  from  the  earliest  days.  We  well  know  that 
some  of  these  forms  in  a  high  state  of  development 
were  in  existence  in  the  later  stages  of  the  Devonian 
age.  They  had  organized  their  habits  and  developed 
their  relations  to  one  another  in  such  fashion  that 
they  were  prepared  to  move  swiftly  on  those  lands 
which  were  to  be  won  from  the  sea,  and  occupy  them 
with  a  dense  vegetation. 

With  the  dawn  of  the  Carboniferous  period  began 
one  of  the  most  singular  chapters  in  the  history  of 
our  continent  or  the  neighboring  land  of  Europe  of 
which  we  have  any  record  in  the  great  stone  book. 
This  history  shows  us  that  for  a  long  time,  during 
practically  the  whole  of  the  Carboniferous  age,  the 
surface  of  these  lowlands  was  extremely  unstable. 
They  were  frequently  and  rather  suddenly  lowered 
beneath  the  level  of  the  sea  and  elevated  above  its 
plain;  alternately  possessed  by  great  swamps  which 
the  tangled  and  swift-growing  vegetation  constructed 
upon  the  imperfectly  drained  land,  and  depressed  be- 
neath the  sea,  where  they  were  covered  with  beds  of 
pebbles,  sands,  and  clays,  which  accumulated  with 
singular  rapidity.  All  the  while  the  climate  ap- 
pears to  have  been  in  a  measure  equable  and  singu- 
larly moist.  It  is  to  this  combination  of  a  moist 
climate,  favoring  the  growth  of  vegetation,  the  pres- 
ence of  a  vegetation  disseminated  by  microscopic  seeds 
or  spores,  which  blew  with  the  wind  and  caught  upon 
every  surface  of  land,  and  to  the  frequent  subsidences 
and  elevations  of  the  land  realm  which  brought  it 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  119 

alternately  below  and  above  the  sea,  that  we  owe  the 
marvellous  coal-beds  which  now  supply  the  dynamic 
basis  of  our  civilization. 

If  when  the  continent  came  above  the  sea  in  the 
great  elevation  at  the  beginning  of  the  coal-measures 
time,  the  land  had  remained  permanent  with  some- 
thing like  the  steadfastness  which  characterizes  it  at 
the  present  day,  coal  would  not  have  been  produced. 
The  plants  would  have  grown  and  died,  and  their 
vegetable  matter,  in  time  completely  decomposed  by 
the  influence  of  the  air,  would  have  returned  to  the 
state  of  carbonic  acid  gas  whence  it  came  to  the 
plants.  Thus  closely  is  man  knit  to  the  past  of  the 
realm  he  inhabits.  The  strength  of  England  and  of 
the  English  race  in  North  America,  the  dominance 
in  the  world  of  that  peculiar  kind  of  man,  depends 
upon  coal ;  and  this  in  an  immediate  way  hinges  upon 
the  peculiar  conditions  of  geographic  development 
which  caused  the  plain-lands  of  North  America  al- 
ternately to  sink  into  and  rise  from  the  sea  in  per- 
haps a  hundred  oscillations  in  the  course  of  one 
geological  period. 

We  cannot  forbear  to  consider  for  a  moment  the 
cause  of  these  oscillations  in  the  Carboniferous  pe- 
riod. The  only  explanation  of  the  phenomena  which 
has  been  given  has  come  to  us  from  that  able  physi- 
ographer. Dr.  James  Croll,  who  has  interpreted  the 
history  of  the  Carboniferous  period  in  a  very  inter-  ' 
esting  way.  Dr.  Croll,  in  his  work  on  climate  and." 
time   in   geology,   has   made  a   strong   argument  t( 


120  NATURE  AND  MAN  EST  AMERICA. 

prove  that  the  Carboniferous  age  was  a  period  of 
great  and  long  continued  though  recurrent  glacia- 
tion.  The  hypothesis  which  Dr.  Croll  advocates  as 
an  explanation  of  the  origin  of  glacial  periods  re- 
quires us  to  suppose  the  cause  to  be  found  in  a  great 
eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit,  and  a  consequent 
change  in  the  character  of  the  seasons  which  occur 
when  the  orbit  is  thus  eccentric.  As  this  theory  is 
of  a  somewhat  complicated  sort,  we  shall  not  under- 
take its  explanation,  but  merely  note  the  important 
conclusion  drawn  by  the  author,  that  a  glacial  epoch 
is  divided  into  periods  of  twelve  thousand  five  hun- 
dred years  each.  These  periods  occurring  alternately 
in  either  hemisphere,  for  a  time  the  ice  sheet  accu- 
mulates in  seasons  of  rigorous  winters,  followed  by 
other  periods  of  equal  length  in  which  the  climate 
of  winter  and  summer  tends  to  be  very  much  alike. 
During  these  recurrent  glacial  periods  Dr.  Croll  sup- 
poses that  the  surface  of  the  continent  was  covered 
by  an  ice  sheet  which  formed  a  large  amount  of 
glacial  debris,  and  at  the  same  time  bore  the  conti- 
nent down  beneath  the  level  of  the  sea.  Then  in 
the  succeeding  period  of  warmth,  when  the  glacial 
sheet  was  transferred  to  the  other  hemisphere,  to  the 
region  about  the  South  Pole,  the  ice  disappeared,  the 
land  rose  from  the  sea,  the  glacial  waste  was  scat- 
tered far  and  wide  in  the  process  of  elevation ;  and 
when  the  emergence  was  accomplished,  the  coal- 
^making  plants  again  possessed  the  surface,  bringing 
at  to   the   state   of    widespread   morasses,    again  to 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  121 

be  suffused  by  the  glacial  waste  of  another  ice 
period. 

Although  Dr.  Croll's  hypothesis  has  been  much 
criticised,  it  has  as  a  whole  fairly  well  withstood  the 
objections  which  its  opponents  have  brought  against 
it,  and  remains  the  most  satisfactory  single  theory 
to  account  for  certain  glacial  periods  in  the  earth's 
history,  though  it  may  not  account  for  all  these  pe- 
culiar stages  in  the  development  of  the  planet.  The 
picture  which  Dr.  CroU  draws  of  the  conditions  of 
Carboniferous  times  reminds  us  of  those  which  ex- 
isted in  the  last  glacial  period.  In  both  we  must 
conceive  advances  and  recessions  of  the  ice.  The 
periods  intervening  between  each  recession  and  each 
return  of  the  glacial  sheet  were  characterized  by  an 
abundant  vegetation.  In  both  the  surface  of  the 
lands  was  extremely  unstable,  swinging  down  into 
and  up  from  the  sea.  Alike  in  each,  we  find  enor- 
mous quantities  of  detrital  matter  free  to  move  about 
under  the  impulse  of  the  ocean  waves,  and  thus  accu- 
mulated in  thick  beds  of  sand,  gravel,  and  boulders. 
In  both  these  periods  the  bouldery  element  of  the 
deposits  grows  less  conspicuous  as  we  go  south,  and 
finally  fades  away  as  we  approach  the  tropics. 

Shortly  after  the  close  of  the  time  during  which 
the  coal-measures  of  the  eastern  United  States  were 
deposited,  a  very  wide-reaching  development  of  moun- 
tains took  place.  The  Alleghanies  were  elevated, 
and  the  old  Appalachian  axis  may  also  have  under- 
gone   some    further    folding.       Extensive    mountain 


122  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

growth  also  occurred  in  the  Cordilleran  range ;  and 
as  the  concomitant  of  this  elevation,  the  table-lands 
bordering  the  elevated  districts  probably  underwent 
a  considerable  elevation.  It  is  to  this  elevation  at- 
tending the  folding  of  mountains  that  we  owe  the 
final  consolidation  of  North  America  into  a  mass 
which,  though  not  as  continuous  as  it  is  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  nevertheless  assumed  the  continental  form 
in  part.  It  was  still  composed  of  great  islands,  and 
it  seems  likely  that  as  a  whole  it  was  at  this  time  not 
more  than  half  its  present  size.  All  the  region  of 
the  Gulf  States,  Florida,  eastern  North  and  South 
Carolina,  eastern  Virginia,  the  greater  part  of  Texas, 
the  whole  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  the  western 
portion  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  possibly 
the  eastern  portion  of  Missouri,  appear  to  have 
been  still  beneath  the  sea.  The  western  versant  of 
the  continent,  the  region  contained  in  the  Rocky 
Mountain  district,  appears  to  have  been  less  consoli- 
dated by  this  elevation  than  the  eastern  portion  of 
the  land-mass.  The  Cordilleran  district  probably 
remained  in  the  condition  of  an  archipelago  to  a 
somewhat  later  time  in  the  earth's  history. 

The  next  great  movement  of  the  continent,  also 
concomitant  with  that  of  mountain-building,  took 
place  after  the  close  of  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Ju- 
rassic period.  There  appears  to  have  been  in  the 
time  of  the  Trias  or  earlier  Jura  in  North  America  a 
period  of  extensive  glaciation,  in  which  the  sand- 
stones and  conglomerates  of  the  Connecticut  valley 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  123 

and  elsewhere  were  laid  down  on  shallow  sea  floors. 
We  find  some  evidence  of  glacial  work  in  the  large 
quantities  of  pebbles  which  have  been  gathered  in 
these  deposits  in  a  way  in  which  they  cannot  well  be 
assembled  by  any  other  than  ice  action.  We  find 
also  at  this  time  evidence  of  the  instability  of  the 
land  such  as  appears  necessarily  to  characterize  gla- 
cial epochs;  and  here,  too,  we  observe  submerged 
forests  converted  into  coal-beds,  just  as  we  find  them 
in  other  glacial  epochs.  Following  this  possible  gla- 
cial epoch  of  the  lower  Jura  comes  again  a  moun- 
tain-building period,  which  probably  occurred  before 
the  close  of  the  Jurassic  period.  This  brought  in  its 
train  a  further  elevation  of  the  general  continental 
area,  and  led  to  a  still  greater  extension  of  the  sur- 
face of  North  America,  particularly  in  the  western 
portion  of  the  country.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  Rocky  Mountain  district  achieved  in  this  time 
a  considerable  further  growth  toward  continental 
conditions.  After  the  Jurassic  period  this  land  ap- 
pears to  have  remained  for  a  considerable  period,  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  Cretaceous  age  indeed,  without 
feeling  any  great  effect  from  the  growth  of  moun- 
tains or  the  concomitant  elevation  of  the  general 
land-masses ;  but  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Terti- 
ary, the  mountain-building  movement  became  again 
active,  at  this  time  particularly  vigorous  in  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  country. 

To  the  movements  of  the  earlier  Tertiary  we  owe 
a  good  part  of  the  relief  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 


124  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  final  consolidation  of  that  region  with  the  body 
of  the  continent.  A  slight  amount  of  elevation  ap- 
pears to  have  occurred  at  the  same  time  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  United  States.  As  yet  we  have 
not  determined  in  a  clear  way  the  development  of 
mountain  growth  in  connection  with  this  elevation 
of  the  eastern  part  of  the  continent.  There  are  a 
number  of  facts,  however,  which  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  well  as  the  mountain 
folds  to  the  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  or  old  Appa- 
lachian axis  underwent  a  certain  amount  of  orogenic 
development. 

It  would  carry  us  too  far  into  the  details  of  geo- 
logical inquiry  to  trace  this  obscure  proof  of  Tertiary 
mountain  growth  in  the  eastern  United  States.  We 
may,  however,  note  a  bit  of  evidence  derived  from 
the  Tertiary  beds  of  Massachusetts.  These  deposits 
of  the  southern  shore  of  Massachusetts,  mainly  ex- 
hibited on  the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  were 
formed,  as  we  have  already  noted,  at  the  mouth  of  a 
great  river.  They  consist  of  very  numerous  alter- 
nating beds  of  white  sands,  red,  yellow,  and  greenish 
clays,  pebbly  deposits,  and  frequent  beds  of  lignite  or 
the  vegetable  matter  such  as  accumulates  as  peat  in 
swamps.  These  deposits  of  the  Vineyard  Series 
have  clearly  been  subjected  to  mountain -building 
action.  They  are  folded  so  that  the  beds  have  steep 
dips,  the  ridges  trending  in  a  northwestern  and 
southeastern  direction.  At  certain  points  the  crump- 
ling of  the  deposits  has  been  so  considerable  as  to 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  125 

bring  the  strata  into  vertical  attitudes,  —  that  is,  the 
amount  of  dislocation  to  which  these  beds  have  been 
subjected  is  about  as  great  as  that  which  is  shown 
in  the  mountain  ridges  of  the  Alleghanies ;  although 
the  plications  themselves  have  much  less  amplitude 
than  the  folds  of  those  great  elevations,  they  un- 
questionably show  the  existence  of  compressive 
forces  which  give  rise  to  mountains.  This  and  other 
evidence  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  at  a  time 
later  than  the  Eocene  Tertiary  and  perhaps  very  near 
the  present  day,  the  forces  which  elevate  mountains 
and  thereby  construct  continents  were  at  work  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  of  North  America. 

In  Europe  the  process  of  mountain  growth  and  of 
continental  development  has  been  essentially  like 
that  which  we  have  considered  in  the  case  of  our  own 
continent,  with  the  exception  that  the  movements 
both  of  uprising  and  of  downsinking  hare  been  very 
much  more  numerous  than  in  North  America.  With 
each  stage  of  the  folding  of  the  rocks  the  lands  have 
become  more  consolidated,  have  taken  on  more  of  the 
continental  form.  What  information  we  have  con- 
cerning the  development  of  the  other  continents  bears 
out  the  supposition  that  the  normal  course  in  the 
growth  of  the  greater  land-masses  is  as  follows :  they 
begin  in  the  archipelagic  state  as  scattered  islands 
in  the  sea,  and  proceed  by  successive  accretions  of 
mass  dependent  on  the  development  of  mountains 
until  they  assume  their  perfect  or  adult  form. 

Although  the  process  of  mountain  growth  leads  to 


126  NATURE  AND  IMAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  formation  of  elevations  on  the  earth's  surface  not 
only  by  the  development  of  folds  themselves,  but  by 
the  growth  of  the  pedestals  on  which  they  stand,  it 
generally,  if  not  always,  happens  that  as  the  eleva- 
tions grow  into  their  anticlinal  ridges  or  upfolds, 
they  produce  by  their  counterthrust  extensive  de- 
pressions, sometimes  of  considerable  width,  on  either 
side  of  the  upfolds.  These  synclinal  valleys  or 
downward  bending  folds  developed  during  the  moun- 
tain growth  often  remain  for  a  long  time  the  seats  of 
deep  bays  or  straits  which  admit  the  sea  far  into  the 
land.  A  familiar  example  of  such  troughs  is  found 
in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River,  which  long 
continued  to  exist  as  a  marine  inlet,  and  has  only  in 
the  more  recent  stages  of  the  continental  development 
been  converted  into  dry  land.  Another  instance  a 
little  farther  away  is  exhibited  in  the  Hudson  valley, 
the  trough  between  the  northern  part  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  older  northern  element  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  of  the  Berkshire  Hills.  In  Europe  these  in- 
tervals between  the  great  mountain  elevations  re- 
mained for  a  greater  time  in  the  form  of  channels 
of  the  sea ;  and  so  the  final,  complete  consolidation  of 
that  continent  was  more  delayed  than  in  the  case  of 
North  America. 

These  downfoldings  attendant  on  mountain  eleva- 
tions also  in  certain  cases  serve  to  bring  portions  of 
the  continent,  previously  elevated  above  the  sea-level, 
below  the  plain  of  the  ocean ;  and  we  must  add  this 
cause  to  the  others  we  have  considered  in  the  list  of 


NATURE  AiSD  MAN  IN   AMERICA.  127 

those  influences  which  lead  to  change  in  the  outline 
of  the  land. 

Turning  once  again  to  the  influences  of  geographic 
conditions  on  the  development  of  life,  we  perceive 
that  this  process  of  continental  growth,  beginning 
with  the  development  of  archipelagoes  and  proceed- 
ing steadfastly  to  greater  agglomerations  of  land, 
serves  to  widen  the  theatre  of  possible  migration  of 
organic  forms,  while  at  the  same  time  it  promotes 
climatal  stresses,  which  compel  the  migrations  of 
the  assemblages  of  animals  and  plants.  It  is  easy 
to  perceive  that  this  increase  in  the  area  of  the  con- 
tinents vastly  favors  the  development  of  new  forms 
of  life,  while  in  the  archipelagic  state  the  land  crea- 
tures were  necessarily  limited  to  forms  which  were 
able  to  migrate  with  ease.  Plants  such  as  ferns, 
the  spores  of  which  are  so  light  that  they  may  be 
borne  to  great  distances  over  the  sea  by  the  winds,  or 
insects  which  by  their  wings  or  their  small  size  may 
drift  through  the  air  or  be  floated  on  chance  frag- 
ments of  timber  which  afford  them  ferriage  over  the 
waters,  are  about  the  only  forms  which  can  meet  the 
accidents  which  are  likely  to  come  to  islands  through 
glaciation  or  through  changes  of  level.  In  the  ear- 
lier state  of  the  continent  a  depression  such  as  that 
of  the  last  glacial  period  or  those  of  the  coal-meas- 
ures, sinking  an  area  like  the  great  Laurentian  or 
Appalachian  island  beneath  the  level  of  the  sea, 
would  necessarily  lead  to  the  destruction  of  the  life 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  creatures  which  dwelt  upon 


128  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

its  surface ;  when  re-elevated  it  might  be  readily  re- 
populated  by  the  light-seeded  plants  and  by  insects, 
and  so  regain  its  original  vitalized  conditions;  but 
such  ready  transportation  is  generally  denied  to 
higher  forms,  during  the  archipelagic  conditions  of 
the  land  areas.  When,  however,  the  continent  as- 
sumes its  united  form,  migrations  would  meet  the 
needs  of  each  climatal  or  geographic  change,  and  the 
organic  assemblage  would  be  free  to  move  during 
such  accidents  —  as  they  did  in  the  last  glacial 
period  —  to  fields  in  which  they  could  survive. 

Thus,  when  the  last  glacial  period  came  to  North 
America,  our  large  seeded  plants,  such  as  the  oaks 
and  the  walnuts,  and  our  land  animals  were,  by  the 
broad  extension  of  the  continent  to  the  southward, 
enabled  to  undergo  a  massive  migration  to  regions 
south  of  the  glaciated  belt,  where  they  found  an  ample 
refuge.  By  this  migration  they  were  not  only  pre- 
served from  utter  destruction,  but  were  brought  into 
conflict  with  the  creatures  which  already  possessed 
this  southern  realm;  and  in  the  struggle  the  best 
survived,  and  so  advanced  the  process  of  evolution 
which  lifts  the  plane  of  organic  life. 

These  considerations  make  it  clear  to  us  that  the 
wide  extension  of  our  continental  lands  and  the  con- 
siderable range  of  climate  which  they  afford  within 
readily  intercommunicable  districts  are  important 
elements  in  the  array  of  influences  which  promote 
advance  in  the  scale  of  being. 

This   advantage  derived  from  the   meridional  or 


NATURE   AND   MAN   IN  AMERICA.  129 

north  and  south  extension  of  the  continents,  and  the 
consequent  opportunity  given  to  animals  and  plants 
to  meet  climatic  changes  such  as  those  which  a  gla- 
cial period  brings  about,  is  found  in  the  distribution 
of  the  seas  as  well  as  of  the  lands.  The  elongation 
of  the  continents  in  a  north  and  south  direction 
secures  geographic  conditions  which  are  favorable  for 
the  movement  of  marine  forms  in  migratory  paths, 
which  are  easily  traversed  when  changes  in  the  tem- 
perature or  the  depth  of  the  sea  make  the  march 
necessary.  If  the  land-masses  were  extended  in  an 
east  and  west  direction,  if  they  were  in  the  form  of 
bands  encircling  the  earth  on  the  parallels,  there 
could  be  no  effective  migrations,  either  on  the  land 
or  in  the  sea,  to  meet  the  accidents  of  climate 
which  would  frequently  imperil  the  life  of  the  earth's 
surface. 

Another  very  important  effect  of  the  consolidation 
of  the  lands  has  arisen  from  their  relations  to  ma- 
rine currents.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  our 
oceanic  streams  are,  in  the  main  at  least,  a  conse- 
quent of  the  movement  which  the  air  has  in  the 
trade-winds  of  the  tropical  district.  These  trade- 
winds  of  the  northern  and  southern  hemispheres 
unite  their  forces  in  the  tropics,  and  shove  the  sur- 
face of  the  water  in  a  general  westerly  direction.  If 
the  equatorial  belt  were  not  occupied  in  part  by  lands, 
or  if  these  lands  were  in  the  form  of  islands,  then  this 
current  would  move  continuously  around  the  earth. 
Let  us  suppose  such  a  girdling  current  to  exist,  and 

9 


130  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

note  what  would  be  its  effect  on  terrestrial  climates. 
It  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  the  result  of  such  a 
girdling  stream  would  be  greatl}^  to  increase  the  tem- 
perature of  the  equatorial  belt.  The  mean  annual 
temperature  of  that  region  would,  on  account  of  the 
retention  of  the  heat  which  the  ocean  currents  now 
convey  to  high  latitudes,  probably  be  elevated  by 
the  amount  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  degrees ;  at  the 
same  time  the  temperatures  of  high  latitudes  would 
be  very  much  reduced.  The  districts  about  the  pole 
enclosed  by  the  parallels  of  forty  degrees  would,  if 
these  conditions  should  prevail,  doubtless  undergo  a 
lowering  of  temperature  which  would  make  them  ab- 
solutely unfit  for  the  occupancy  of  the  higher  forms 
of  life.  Circumpolar  deserts  of  cold  and  an  equally 
sterile  overheated  region  near  the  equator  would 
necessarily  exist  if  the  equatorial  currents  were  free 
to  girdle  the  earth.  It  is  only  because  of  the  land 
barriers  which  the  westward-setting  ocean  streams 
encounter  in  South  America  and  on  the  coast  of 
Asia  and  Africa,  that  we  have  that  wonderful  system 
of  superficial  oceanic  circulation  which  diminishes 
the  heat  of  the  tropical  belt  and  elevates  that  of  the 
circumpolar  districts.  In  this  way  the  earth  is  made 
habitable;  for  although  life  in  certain  forms  would 
doubtless  have  had  a  place  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  even  if  this  machinery  of  circulation  in  the 
seas  had  not  come  into  play,  we  cannot  believe  that 
organisms  could,  under  these  atmospheric  conditions, 
have  attained  anything  like  their  present  advance- 


NATURE    AND   MAN  IN   AMERICA.  131 

ment.  The  field  of  development  would  have  been 
narrowed  down  to  a  very  small  part  of  the  earth's 
area,  and  the  struggle  of  life  with  the  difficulties  of 
climate  would  have  been  vastly  greater  than  it  has 
actually  been. 

The  foregoing  considerations  enable  us  to  see  that 
the  process  of  land  growth  has  been  on  the  whole 
singularly  well  fitted  to  secure  the  development  of 
organic  forms,  by  providing  them  a  theatre  for  their 
life,  and  arranging  the  conditions  of  the  stage  to  pro- 
mote those  interactions  on  which  all  advance  de- 
pends. We  will  now  turn  for  a  glance  at  the 
atmospherical  or  climatic  conditions  which  have  pre- 
vailed on  the  earth's  surface  since  organic  life  began 
its  development  on  our  planet. 

When  geologists  began  to  unravel  the  earth's  his- 
tory, they  were  naturally  led  to  suppose  that  the 
present  was  a  time  of  unusual  repose,  the  earlier 
ages  having  been  periods  when  the  forces  which 
affect  the  earth  were  in  a  state  of  often  recurring 
and  violent  activity.  As  long  as  the  observer  was 
compelled  to  conceive  the  construction  of  the  world 
to  have  been  accomplished  in  a  few  thousand  years,  it 
was  inevitable  that  he  should  assume  a  certain  vio- 
lence in  the  development  of  the  earth's  features. 
Gradually  the  fancy  for  startling  theories  concerning 
the  past  history  of  this  sphere  which  led  to  these 
views  has,  under  the  influence  of  better  knowledge, 
been  put  aside.     Geologists  now  believe  that  the  con- 


132       NATURE  AXD  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

tinents  have  grown  slowly  from  the  seas,  and  that  the 
mountains  with  all  their  exhibitions  of  titanic  energy 
have  likewise  gradually  come  to  their  present  state ; 
in  a  word,  that  the  crust  of  the  earth  behaves  at  the 
present  day  substantially  as  it  has  acted  at  all  stages 
in  its  history,  since  life  came  upon  it.  The  last 
stronghold  of  the  convulsionists,  or  those  who  hold 
that  the  earth  of  to-day  is  essentially  unlike  the 
earth  of  the  past,  is  found  in  the  realm  of  the 
air,  in  the  region  of  climatic  changes.  Many  geolo- 
gists still  hold  that  the  atmosphere  at  the  present 
day  must  be  in  many  ways  unlike  that  of  the  ear- 
lier geological  periods ;  they  also  conceive  the  glacial 
epochs  to  mark  peculiar  states  of  the  earth's  con- 
ditions essentially  unexampled  in  this  last  stage  of 
its  development. 

The  task  now  before  us  is  to  consider  the  atmos- 
pheric influences  which  environ  organic  life,  in  order 
that  we  may  note  the  manner  in  which  they  have 
influenced  the  conditions  of  its  progress.  Our  first 
aim  will  be  to  show  that  the  earth's  climate,  though 
varying  from  one  geological  period  to  another,  passing 
at  times  into  conditions  of  age-long  winter,  and  again 
into  a  state  where  a  mild  and  uniform  climate  for 
thousands  of  years  prevailed  throughout  a  hemisphere, 
has  as  a  whole  maintained  a  tolerably  uniform  char- 
acter. At  the  same  time  it  will  be  desirable  to  show 
that  the  body  of  the  atmosphere  is  at  the  present  time 
chemically  the  same  as  it  was  in  the  ages  when  life 
was  at  its  dawn.     The  proof  of  the  last-mentioned 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  133 

point  may  be  somewhat  briefly  stated.  The  tempera- 
ture of  the  earth's  surface  in  large  part  depends  upon 
the  mass  of  the  air.  If  that  envelope  were  to  be 
doubled  in  volume,  the  average  heat  of  the  earth 
would  be  increased  in  something  like  a  proportional 
manner.  Now,  the  organic  life  of  the  earth's  surface 
can  only  exist  within  narrow  ranges  of  temperature. 
It  is  possible  for  animals  and  plants  to  live  only  be- 
tween thirty -two  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  A  few  forms  which  manage  to  protect 
their  bodies  in  winter  by  their  peculiar  habits  can 
endure  in  extreme  cold;  none  can  maintain  them- 
selves at  a  greater  temperature  than  one  hundred  and 
sixty  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Therefore  we  may  assume 
that  organic  life  from  the  dawn  of  geological  history 
to  the  present  day  has  found  the  atmosphere  of  about 
the  same  volume  as  at  present,  and  that  the  range  of 
temperature  has  been  limited. 

In  certain  shore  deposits  of  the  Cambrian  period 
we  find,  in  the  beds  which  were  laid  bare  by  the  re- 
flux of  the  tide  and  covered  by  its  subsequent  incom- 
ing, the  imprint  of  rain-drops,  which  tell  us  that  the 
ordinary  machinery  of  the  atmosphere  was  operating 
in  those  days  as  it  does  at  the  present  time.  In  the 
rocks  formed  in  the  same  early  stages  of  the  earth's 
history,  we  find  vast  accumulations  of  conglomerates 
which  in  their  aspect  are  so  like  the  deposits  made 
during  the  last  glacial  period  along  the  shores  of 
New  England  that  we  can  conclude  them  to  be  the 
products  of  the  glacial  forces.     Such  considerations 


134  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

show  US  that  in  this  ancient  Cambrian  period  the 
climatal  conditions  \Yere  essentially  like  those  pre- 
vailing in  and  near  our  own  day.  Geographic  al- 
terations have,  of  course,  produced  wide  alterations 
of  climate.  They  have  dried  up  realms  to  deserts, 
and  have  turned  again  to  fertility  countries  which 
were  for  a  time  unfitted  for  life.  But  all  these 
changes  have  been  in  their  nature  local ;  they  have 
never  destructively  interfered  with  the  majestic  on- 
going of  the  great  organic  armies. 

The  presence  of  vast  amounts  of  carbon  in  the  coal- 
beds  and  in  the  limestones  and  other  deposits  of  the 
earth  has  led  geologists  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
atmosphere  must  have  at  one  time  contained  an 
enormous  body  of  that  substance  in  the  form  of  car- 
bonic acid  gas,  whence  it  was  taken  by  plants  and  by 
the  animals  which  feed  on  plants  and  built  into  the 
rocks.  This  supposition  demands  a  very  peculiar  at- 
mosphere in  the  early  stages  of  the  earth's  history 
before  the  carbon  was  deposited  in  the  rocks.  It  is 
now,  however,  pretty  clear  that  the  carbon  in  our 
coal-beds,  limestones,  and  other  deposits  could  not 
have  been  at  any  one  time  present  in  the  atmosphere, 
for  the  reason  that  an  air  so  constituted  would  be 
unfit  to  maintain  the  animal  life  which  has  existed 
on  the  crust  of  the  earth  from  the  earliest  geological 
ages  to  the  present  day.  We  are  therefore  driven  to 
suppose  that  this  substance  is  in  some  way  fed  into 
the  atmosphere ;  we  are  reasonably  sure  it  does  not 
come  from  the  earth's  interior,  there  being  only  a  rel- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  135 

atively  small  amount  of  it  thrown  out  by  the  volca- 
noes and  other  terrestrial  sources.  On  this  account 
geologists  are  now  coming  to  the  opinion  that  carbon 
must  be  slowly  brought  into  the  air  from  the  celestial 
spaces  at  something  like  the  same  rate  at  which  it  is 
taken  from  the  air  by  plants  and  buried  in  the  crust 
of  the  earth.  In  a  word,  all  the  facts  point  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  constitution  and  in  mass  the  aerial 
envelope  of  the  earth,  on  which  all  life  so  intimately 
depends,  has  not  essentially  varied  from  the  begin- 
ning of  organic  history  to  the  present  day.  There 
remains  the  question  of  climate.  How  can  we  ac- 
count for  such  variations  of  temperature  as  are  indi- 
cated in  the  past  history  of  the  earth  without  recourse 
to  convulsions,  without  having  to  suppose  that  in 
certain  periods  the  earth  was  in  many  regards 
another  sphere  than  that  we  now  find  it  to  be  ? 

The  climatal  variations  indicated  in  the  record  of 
the  rocks  may  be  briefly  set  forth  as  follows :  At 
)nany  times  in  the  earth's  history  organic  life  — even 
those  forms  which  are  quite  sensitive  to  cold  —  has 
ranged  close  up  to  the  poles.  Thus  during  the  Car- 
))oniferous  period  plants  allied  to  tree-ferns  were 
developed  within  the  Arctic  Circle.  In  the  Miocene 
Tertiary  other  species  similar  to  those  now  living  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  Mississippi  valley  flourished 
within  twelve  degrees  of  the  North  Pole.  At  other 
times,  probably  at  many  other  periods,  an  ice  sheet, 
such  as  now  covers  Greenland,  extended  south  on  the 
continent  of  North  America  to  about  the  ])arallel  of 


136  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

forty  degrees,  or  perhaps  in  detached  ice-caps  in  ele- 
vated regions  to  points  somewhat  farther  south.  At 
certain  other  times  and  places  in  the  earth's  history 
there  have  been  climates  of  peculiar  dryness,  which 
have  formed  enormous  deposits  of  salts,  such  as  are 
precipitated  from  sea-water  by  its  complete  evapora- 
tion. In  some  ages  deposits  of  this  nature  have  accu- 
mulated to  a  great  depth.  In  endeavoring  to  account 
for  the  climatal  changes  of  the  earth,  we  must  bear 
in  mind  such  extremes  of  climate,  —  of  heat,  cold, 
dryness,  and  wetness,  —  which  indicate  the  gamut 
of  change  the  earth's  temperature  conditions  have 
undergone. 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  note  the  evidence  as  to  the 
states  of  climate  in  the  former  geological  periods  in 
this  continent  which  may  be  derived  from  the  salt 
deposits  which  may  be  found  at  various  points  within 
its  area.  The  value  of  the  evidence  which  may  be 
obtained  from  these  accumulations  of  rock-salt  has 
generally  been  neglected  by  geologists.  They  are, 
however,  of  a  precious  sort,  for  they  enable  us  to 
trace  the  times  when  the  climate  of  particular  regions 
was  remarkably  dry ;  for  it  is  only  under  conditions 
of  extreme  desiccation  that  such  accumulations  of 
saline  materials  are  made.  Judging  of  the  past  by 
the  present  conditions,  we  may  say  that  only  in  those 
fields  where  the  rainfall  is  extremely  limited  in 
amount  and  the  heat  of  the  sun  very  powerful  can  we 
have  such  accumulations  formed. 

The  most  rpppntlv  accumulated  salt-beds  of  North 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  137 

America,  except  those  about  the  dead  seas  of  the  Cor- 
dilleras, are  found  in  southern  Louisiana,  near  the 
margin  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  that  field  we  have 
very  extensive  deposits  of  rock-salt  which  apparently 
were  formed  in  Tertiary  or  Cretaceous  times.  This 
is  now  one  of  the  rainiest  districts  in  North  America ; 
but  from  the  large  quantities  in  which  the  salt  was 
accumulated  it  was  evidently  at  one  time  a  field  of 
peculiar  dryness.  To  account  for  the  dry  climate 
indicated  by  these  Louisiana  rock-salts,  we  have  to 
suppose  a  totally  different  arrangement  of  the  Gulf 
Stream  from  that  which  exists  at  present. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  our  continent's  history, 
particularly  in  the  Silurian  age,  rock-salts  of  vast 
thickness  and  extent  were  formed  in  the  region 
which  lies  between  central  Michigan  and  eastern 
New  York.  This  field  was  at  that  time  the  northern 
border  of  the  now  shrunken  continental  sea  which  we 
term  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  which  was  then  visited 
by  a  tide  of  warm  water.  This  warm  ocean  current 
must  have  been  the  equivalent  of  the  Gulf  Stream. 
The  evidence  shows  us  that  from  time  to  time  that 
stream  was  denied  access  to  the  Mexican  Gulf,  —  a 
field  which  it  now  possesses. 

Although  these  phenomena  concerning  the  distri- 
bution of  salt  are  of  exceeding  interest,  we  can  only 
note  them  here  to  show  how  great  may  have  been  the 
climatal  variation  due  to  the  change  in  that  marine 
current  which  is  the  dominating  element  in  the 
climate  of  North  America  and  of  Europe. 


138  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Next  Tve  should  note  the  fact  that  the  temperature 
of  the  earth's  surface  is  determined  by  a  singular!}^ 
delicate  adjustment  of  conditions.  In  the  sun  there 
is  a  heat  probably  to  be  measured  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  degrees  Fahrenheit ;  in  the  centre  of  the 
earth,  a  temperature  which  perhaps  surpasses  ten 
thousand  degrees  Fahrenheit ;  and  in  the  starry  space 
between  —  save  for  a  mere  skim  of  atmosphere  on  the 
earth's  surface,  a  few  miles  of  the  millions  which 
separate  the  earth  and  sun  —  we  have  a  cold  far  below 
the  zero  of  Fahrenheit.  On  a  summer  day  the  fleecy 
clouds  which  float  in  the  upper  air  at  the  height 
of  six  miles  above  the  surface  are  composed  of  parti- 
cles of  ice.  An  equal  distance  below  the  surface,  we 
probably  have  a  temperature  much  exceeding  that  of 
boiling  water.  With  these  facts  clearly  in  mind,  we 
perceive  the  marvel  is  not  how  climatal  changes  have 
come  upon  the  earth,  but  rather  how  they  have  been 
kept  within  such  a  range  as  to  have  permitted  the 
organic  series  to  go  forward  steadfastly  in  their 
development,  essentially  unharmed  by  atmospheric 
catastrophes. 

The  conditions  which  bring  about  glaciation  appear 
to  require  no  widespread  alteration  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  earth's  climate.  Most  geologists  are 
now  disposed  to  reject  the  first  and  crude  hypothesis 
that  glaciation  was  caused  by  extreme  cold.  We 
now  know  with  approximate  certainty  that  a  decrease 
in  the  temperature  of  high  latitudes  would  reduce 
rather  than  extend  the  existing  glaciers,  for  the  rea- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  139 

son  that  a  greater  measure  of  cold  would  be  attended 
bj  a  further  reduction  in  the  quantity  of  rainfall,  and 
therefore  by  lessened  glaciers.  If  by  any  set  of  cir- 
cumstances the  snowfall  of  northern  Europe  and  North 
America  should  be  doubled,  without  a  very  great  in- 
crease in  the  annual  heat,  glaciers  would  probably  re- 
turn to  the  lands  they  occupied  in  the  last  ice  time. 
At  present  the  summit  of  Mount  Washington  is  al- 
most high  enough  to  bear  glaciers,  the  snow  enduring 
there  sometimes  until  the  month  of  August.  If  the 
snowfall  of  that  region  should  be  doubled,  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  glaciers  would  begin  to  gather  at 
the  uppermost)  parts  of  the  mountain.  As  soon  as 
they  were  formed,  they  would  tend  to  gather  fogs 
above,  and  even  to  fend  off  the  rays  of  the  summer 
sun  which  would  melt  the  snows.  Breeding  a  cli- 
mate favorable  to  its  preservation,  the  ice  sheet 
would  rapidly  extend ;  and  under  the  supposition  of 
a  doubled  snowfall  over  New  England,  it  seems  quite 
likely  that  the  glacial  sheet  would  soon  occupy  the 
whole  of  its  surface,  the  ice  beginning  to  gather  in 
the  mountains  and  growing  thence,  taking  its  climate 
with  it  as  it  invaded  the  lower  lands.  The  last  gla- 
cial period  which  affected  North  America  seems  to 
have  been  mainly  limited,  at  least  as  far  as  the  de- 
velopment of  massive  glaciers  was  concerned,  to  the 
region  about  the  North  Atlantic,  Europe,  and  western 
Asia,  and  the  eastern  parts  of  North  America.  Such 
an  ice  time  might  perhaps  be  brought  about  by  a 
considerable   increase   in   the   volume   of    the   Gulf 


140       NATURE  AND  ^[AN  IX  AMERICA. 

Stream,  which  would  increase  the  temperature  of  the 
North  Atlantic  waters,  and  cause  them  to  give  more 
moisture  to  the  air,  and  thus  increase  the  rainfall  of 
the  contiguous  lands. 

Until  recently  geologists  have  sought  the  cause 
which  produced  the  wide  extension  of  the  ice  during 
the  last  glacial  period  in  Europe  and  North  America 
in  some  general  changes  which  have  affected  the 
whole  climate  of  the  earth.  With  the  advance  in 
field  observations  it  has  gradually  become  clear  that 
this  particular  glacial  period  at  least  was  due  to 
some  action  which  took  effect  mainly  in  the  region 
about  the  North  Atlantic.  The  researches  of  Ameri- 
can geologists  made  within  two  or  three  years  have 
shown  that  while  the  ice  lay  in  great  thickness 
over  the  region  from  southern  New  England,  central 
Pennsylvania,  and  southern  Ohio  northward  to  Hud- 
son's Bay,  and  possibly  beyond  to  the  Greenland  dis- 
trict, the  western  margin  of  the  sheet  did  not  quite 
attain  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  the  re- 
gion adjacent  to  the  line  between  the  United  States 
and  Canada.  It  is  true  that  in  the  Cordi Reran 
mountains  there  were  here  and  there  extensive  local 
glaciers,  but  it  is  now  unquestiona])le  that  the  condi- 
tions which  maintained  the  ice  diminished  in  their 
effect  as  we  approach  the  Pacific  Ocean  on  the  west- 
ern border  of  the  continent. 

It  appears  also  clear  that  when  the  glacial  envelope 
was  thickest  in  Europe,  the  deposit  thinned  out 
toward  central  and  northern  Asia,  only  certain  por- 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  141 

tions  of  the  greater  continent  then  having  extensive 
fields  of  ice.  In  a  word,  it  is  evident  that  when  the 
North  Atlantic  region  was  thus  icebound,  the  regions 
about  the  shores  of  the  North  Pacific  were  not  in 
any  considerable  measure  enveloped  by  glaciers.  It 
appears  to  the  present  writer  that  this  aspect  of  the 
fact  naturally  leads  us  to  seek  a  cause  of  North  At- 
lantic glaciation  in  the  variations  in  effect  which  the 
Gulf  Stream  has  exercised  upon  its  basin.  That 
ocean  current  is  at  present  the  principal  factor  in 
determining  the  North  Atlantic  climate.  Even  as 
far  north  as  the  Arctic  Circle,  where  the  influence  of 
its  tide  of  warm  waters  is  much  diminished,  it  still 
brings  to  the  field  of  the  sea  more  warmth  than  at- 
tains to  it  from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 

It  is  not  yet  possible  to  trace  the  variations  which 
have  taken  place  in  the  course  of  the  Gulf  Stream  in 
relatively  modern  geologic  times,  say  during  the 
period  at  which  the  ice  attained  its  greatest  exten- 
sion about  the  North  Atlantic.  It  is,  however,  ap- 
parent that  alterations  in  the  form  and  position  of 
Cape  St.  Roque,  in  the  elevation  of  the  Antilles  or 
of  Florida,  or  in  the  conditions  of  the  isthmian  dis- 
trict, the  land  which  connects  North  and  South 
America,  might  profoundly  influence  the  volume  and 
swiftness  of  movement  of  this  ocean  current.  It 
seems  likely  that  until  the  recent  changes  of  the 
Gulf  Stream  have  been  carefully  studied  we  cannot 
expect  to  attain  sound  views  as  to  tlie  nature  of  the 
causes  which  brought  about  the  Atlantic  glacial  epoch. 


142  NATURE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

Such  an  increase  in  the  volume  of  the  Gulf  Stream 
which  penetrates  the  North  Atlantic  might  be  brought 
about  in  one  of  several  ways.  A  change  in  the  posi- 
tion of  Cape  St.  Roque,  the  eastern  promontory  of 
South  America,  which  now  divides  the  waters  of  the 
equatorial  current,  might  serve  to  turn  the  whole  of 
that  great  stream  into  the  North  Atlantic,  or  to 
divert  it  altogether  toward  the  South  Pole;  or  a 
lowering  of  the  lands  about  Behring's  Strait  might 
permit  a  larger  share  of  the  Japanese  Gulf  Stream  to 
penetrate  into  the  Arctic  waters,  somewhat  elevating 
the  temperature  arid  increasing  the  rainfall  of  all  the 
northern  parts  of  North  America.  Thus  simple  geo- 
graphical changes  such  as  are  within  the  range  of 
reasonable  conjecture  appear  sufficient  to  bring  about 
the  relatively  small  amount  of  climatal  modification 
necessary  to  produce  a  glacial  period,  if  all  the  other 
conditions  were  such  as  to  favor  its  creation. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  institution  of  glaciation 
depends  entirely  upon  any  one  cause.  It  seems  very 
probable  that  the  interesting  hypothesis  of  Dr.  CroU 
presents  us  with  a  condition  which  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances could  bring  about  the  imposition  of  an 
ice  sheet  upon  the  continent.  There  may  be  a  variety 
of  other  accidents,  some  of  which  we  have  noted, 
which  would  lead  to  a  large  precipitation  of  water  in 
the  form  of  snow  on  certain  lands,  and  thus  to  the 
creation  of  a  glacial  period,  the  extent  of  which 
would  be  measured  by  the  diffusion  of  the  conditions. 
Considerations  such  as  these  serve  to  show  us  that 


NATURE   AND   MAN   IN  AMERICA.  143 

our  glacial  periods  do  not  demand  any  singular  de 
parture  from  the  conditions  which  now  operate  in 
determining  the  earth's  climate.  That  climate,  both 
in  its  general  aspects  and  in  the  shape  which  it  as- 
sumes in  any  field,  is  determined  by  the  equation  of 
a  wide  range  of  causes. 

The  great  northward  extension  of  relatively  warm 
climates  which  has  occurred  at  certain  stages  of  the 
earth's  history  is  perhaps  explicable  in  an  equally 
simple  manner.  We  have  already  noticed  the  fact 
that  the  Gulf  Stream  now  bears  to  the  region  within 
the  Arctic  Circle  more  heat  derived  from  equatorial 
sunshine  than  falls  upon  that  area  directly  from  the 
sun  itself.  It  is  to  this  great  body  of  warmth  we  owe 
the  habitability  to  civilized  man  of  northern  Europe. 
The  whole  process  of  our  civilization,  indeed,  depends 
upon  this  continuous  tide  of  tropical  water.  In  the 
present  conditions  of  oceanic  circulation,  the  warm 
water  coming  from  the  tropics  to  the  North  Pole  is 
not  sufficient  to  lift  the  temperature  of  that  region 
into  the  limits  favorable  to  delicate  forms  of  life; 
but  if  the  passage  of  Behring's  Strait  were  as  readily 
open  to  the  Kuro  Sivo,  or  Japan  Current,  as  the  North 
Atlantic  is  open  to  the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  Stream, 
the  temperature  of  the  region  about  the  North  Pole 
would  probably  be  lifted  by  at  least  thirty  degrees 
above  its  present  mean  annual.  This  alteration,  as 
before  noted,  if  but  partly  accomplished,  might 
vastly  extend  the  glaciers  which  exist  about  the 
pole,  by  increasing  the  snowfall ;   but  if  completely 


144  NATURE   AXD   MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

effected,  it  would  bring  the  mean  temperature  of  the 
region  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  which  is  now  about 
thirty  degrees  Fahrenheit,  to  about  sixty  degrees 
Fahrenheit  on  the  mean  annual.  We  should  probably 
then  have  in  all  the  country  about  the  poles  a  condi- 
tion of  temperature  not  greatly  different  from  that  of 
southern  England  or  the  southern  parts  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Yalley.  This  climatal  state  would  endure 
until  geographic  changes  had  modified  the  run  of  the 
oceanic  currents.  Thus  on  the  form  of  the  land  and 
sea,  rather  than  upon  remote  conditions,  we  may 
hope  to  found  a  sound  theory  concerning  the  ancient 
climates,  with  their  varying  heat  and  cold. 

We  must  now  note  the  fact  that  the  process  of  de- 
velopment of  continents  has  not  only  provided  an 
ample  theatre  for  the  migration  of  life  under  the  in- 
fluences of  climatal  and  geographic  change,  but  that 
it  also  brings  a  set  of  influences,  through  the  varying 
ocean  currents  and  changes  in  the  height  of  the  land 
surface,  which  impel  the  faunas  and  florae  to  those  in- 
teractive and  continual  migrations  on  which  so  large 
a  part  of  organic  advance  clearly  depends.  We  see 
the  importance  of  these  climatal  trials,  and  their 
effect  in  promoting  the  destruction  of  the  old  and 
weak  and  the  prosperity  of  the  new  and  strong  species, 
by  comparing  the  organic  conditions  which  exist  in 
the  tropics  and  in  high  latitudes. 

It  is  clear  that  organic  life  tends  to  its  most  rapid 
advancement  in  those  parts  of  the  earth's  surface 
where  beings  are  subject  to  a  considerable  stress  from 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  145 

climatal  conditions,  —  where  from  geological  period 
to  geological  period  they  are  driven  about  by  the 
changes  of  temperature,  and  kept  as  it  were  in  inces 
sant  motion.  We  find  in  the  tropical  districts  an 
assemblage  of  animals  in  which  there  are  many 
archaic  forms.  The  elephants,  once  inhabitants  of 
all  the  greater  continents,  once  endowed  with  power 
to  meet  the  cold  of  the  Arctic  Circle  as  well  as  the 
warmth  of  the  tropics,  have  shrunken  away  from  the 
lands  in  high  latitudes,  and  find  their  refuge  near 
the  equator.  So,  too,  the  tigers,  the  rhinoceroses, 
and  a  host  of  other  forms  once  strong  enough  to  meet 
the  trials  of  rigorous  climates,  have  in  their  decline 
betaken  themselves  to  the  great  almshouse  of  the 
tropics,  where  if  the  conditions  of  advance  are  less 
perfect  than  those  afforded  by  regions  of  variable 
climate,  the  abundance  of  food  and  the  absence  of 
climatal  stress  permit  the  forms  to  survive. 

To  the  naturalist  who  has  come  to  appreciate  the 
sensitiveness  of  organic  forms  to  their  surrounding 
conditions,  who  has  also  seen  how  organic  advance 
depends  upon  the  completion  of  each  step  in  the  great 
series  of  living  beings,  the  most  surprising  facts  of 
the  world  are  found  in  the  coincidence  between  the 
laws  of  the  earth's  development  and  the  needs  of 
organic  life.  Where  his  predecessors  in  the  study  of 
the  earth  found  in  the  conditions  which  lead  to  the 
formation  of  mountains  a  cause  of  widespread  destruc- 
tion, he  sees  only  beneficent  influences,  cruel  it  may 

10 


146  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

be  to  individuals,  but  blessing-giving  to  the  large 
assemblages  of  life.  Gradually  to  such  a  student  the 
world  seems  more  and  more  purposeful.  Slowly  the 
sense  of  order  and  relation  between  the  apparently 
rude  machinery  of  the  earth's  crust  and  the  delicate 
beings  which  are  bred  upon  it  becomes  clear;  and 
finally  he  finds  himself  inevitably  led  to  the  convic- 
tion that  there  is  an  essential  unity  in  all  the  life  of 
this  sphere,  —  the  physical  and  organic  being  but 
parts  of  one  great  plan. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Dependence  of  Man  on  Environment ;  Increase  of  this  Dependence  with  the 
Advance  of  Civilization.  —  Relations  of  our  modern  States  to  the  Condi- 
tions of  the  Earth. — Advance  in  the  Sympathetic  Motive.  —  Comparison 
of  Europe  and  North  America.  —  Discussion  of  the  separate  Areas  of 
Europe.  —  Isolation  of  Great  Britain ;  its  Causes.  —  Isolated  Areas  of 
Asia.  —  Cradle-land  of  the  Ar3'an  People.  —  Permanence  of  Race  Quali- 
ties. —  Race  Qualities  in  Africa ;  in  Australia ;  in  America.  —  Geographic 
Conditions  of  North  America;  Review  oi'  the  several  Fields  of  this  Con- 
tinent.—  Effect  of  Physical  Conditions  of  North  America  on  native 
Indians. 


The  advance  which  has  been  made  in  natural  sci- 
ence during  the  last  century  has  led  to  a  great  change 
in  our  conception  as  to  the  relations  of  mankind  to 
the  earth.  Of  old,  men  looked  upon  themselves  as 
accidents  upon  this  sphere.  In  the  light  of  modern 
science,  we  regard  our  species  as  the  product  of 
terrestrial  conditions.  We  conceive  man  as  the 
summit  and  crown  of  the  long-continued  progressive 
changes  which  have  led  his  bodily  structure  and  his 
mental  powers  up  from  the  dust  to  their  present  ele- 
vated estate. 

In  the  progress  of  organic  advance  which  has  led 
through  inconceivably  numerous  stages  of  existence 
from  the  primal  base  of  life  to  the  estate  of  man,  the 
dependence  of  beings  on  the  conditions  which  sur- 
rounded them  has  always  been  very  close.     The  low- 


148  NATURE  AND  :\IAX  IN  AMERICA. 

liest  organism  is  influenced  by  the  temperature  in  air 
or  water,  by  the  conditions  of  the  soil  or  sea-bottom, 
or  the  circumstances  which  serve  to  bring  it  the 
needful  food.  With  each  advance  of  intellectual 
power  the  dependence  on  environment  becomes  more 
and  more  intimate,  for  with  that  intelligence  the 
creature  steks  beyond  itself  for  opportunities  to 
gratify  its  desires.  It  chases  its  prey,  flees  from 
pursuers,  herds  with  its  kind,  and  is  thereby  edu- 
cated to  a  sympathetic  life. 

When  the  human  state  is  attained,  when  the  pro- 
gressive desires  of  man  are  aroused,  the  relations  of 
life  to  the  geography  and  other  conditions  of  environ- 
ment increase  in  a  wonderfully  rapid  way.  When 
the  tool-making  stage  is  won,  the  savage  must  be- 
come in  a  certain  way  a  geologist.  He  learns  per- 
force to  seek  for  particular  kinds  of  stone  with  which 
he  may  point  his  arrows  and  spears,  to  make  the 
mortars  and  pestles  with  which  to  grind  his  corn 
or  the  clay  of  his  pottery.  The  next  stage  —  that  of 
agriculture  —  yet  further  increases  the  measure  of 
dependence  on  the  character  of  the  earth.  As  soon 
as  the  rude  combats  of  the  earlier  man  develop  into 
the  military  art,  the  work  of  attack  and  defence 
leads  to  a  close  relation  of  the  developing  savage  to 
the  topographic  conditions  which  he  encounters. 
When  commerce  arises,  the  dependence  of  man  on 
the  shape  of  the  earth  becomes  yet  more  intimate. 
With  the  growth  of  each  of  these  elements  of  civili- 
zation,  the  arts  of  the  household,   of   war,   and   of 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  149 

trade,  the  chains  which  bind  men  to  the  earth  about 
them  become  stronger. 

It  is  impossible  to  depict  in  an  adequate  way  the 
measure  of  dependence  of  our  modern  civilized  man 
upon  the  world  about  him.  The  functions  of  his 
body  and  mind  depend  curiously  on  objects  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  Thus  our  meals  commonly  mean 
many  thousand  miles  of  transit  to  bring  the  food  to 
the  table ;  the  clothing  of  our  bodies  brings  the  wool 
of  Australia,  the  cotton  of  the  Carolinas,  the  silk  of 
Italy  or  China,  the  gold  of  California,  the  leather  of 
Paraguay,  the  arts  of  hands  and  brains  in  a  dozen 
different  peoples  together.  Our  daily  thoughts  take 
hold  on  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  dependence  of  our  modern  States  upon  the  con- 
ditions of  the  earth  is  inconceivably  greater  than  that 
of  the  ancient  tribe  whence  they  came.  In  the  won- 
derful State  of  Britain  the  national  life-functions 
vary  with  reference  to  the  topography  of  high  Asia, 
the  climate  and  surface  of  Africa,  and  certain  por- 
tions of  other  countries ;  and  almost  every  storm  and 
every  drought  which  affects  the  remotest  lands  and 
seas  reacts  upon  that  State.  Ministers,  and  with 
them  the  purposes  of  the  State,  are  changed  by  the 
chance  of  some  battlefield  at  the  antipodes.  A  bad 
harvest  in  the  plains  of  the  Upper  xMississippi  means 
dear  bread  in  England,  fewer  marriages,  and  shorter 
lives;  in  other  words,  it  produces  an  effect  on  the 
whole  social  status  of  that  country.  A  disturbance 
such:  as  our  Civil  War,  which  arrests  the  cotton  ex- 


160  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

port  of  the  United  States,  starves  Manchester,  and 
sets  the  rulers  of  Britain  against  the  cause  of  freedom 
in  America. 

It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  present  an  adequate  pic- 
ture of  the  physiographical  reactions  which  civilized 
man  experiences  through  the  geographic  condition  of 
the  earth's  surface ;  for  such  a  picture  would  have  to 
disclose  the  infinitely  complicated  machinery  of  our 
society.  I  must  beg  my  readers  to  aid  me  by  ima- 
gining their  own  position  in  relation  to  the  earth's 
features. 

There  is,  however,  one  aspect  of  the  increasing 
dependence  of  man  on  Nature  which  comes  about 
through  advancing  civilization,  —  a  feature  so  new 
and  so  important  that  we  should  notice  it  at  least  in 
a  passing  way.  The  largest  element  of  this  growth  is 
found  in  the  gain  in  the  sympathetic  motives  which 
have  arisen  from  a  wider  understanding  of  the  world 
and  a  closer  application  of  the  human  mind  to  its 
phenomena.  It  is  a  curious  feature  in  the  culture  ot 
Greece  that  it  never  seems  to  have  been  sympatheti- 
cally concerned  with  the  people  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  native  State.  The  Greek  thought  of  most  things 
which  we  think  about;  but  this  matter,  which  now 
much  occupies  our  mind,  did  not  concern  him. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  modern  sympathy  of  man 
with  the  world  about  him  which  manifests  itself  in 
the  love  of  the  unseen  savage,  in  the  love  of  the 
beautiful,  in  the  love  of  scientific  inquiry  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge  alone,  is  the  last  product  of  those 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  151 

vast  interactions  which  have  come  from  the  extension 
of  the  contacts  of  man  with  Nature,  —  first  through 
commerce,  and  afterward  through  less  economic  mo- 
tives. This  interaction  is  to  a  great  extent  depen- 
dent on  peculiarities  of  the  earth's  surface,  on  the 
diversities  of  the  lands  and  seas,  and  the  consequent 
almost  infinite  variety  in  the  subjects  for  curious  and 
profitable  inquiry  which  the  world  affords. 

Although  on  each  land-mass  the  physiographic  in- 
fluences are  of  the  utmost  importance  with  reference 
to  the  development  of  man,  we  can  only  glance  at 
certain  interesting  features  dependent  on  the  struc- 
ture of  the  lands  of  Europe  and  North  America,  giving 
most  of  our  attention  to  the  conditions  of  our  own 
continent.  North  America  is  most  interesting  to  us, 
not  only  because  it  is  the  seat  of  our  own  life,  but 
also  because  it  is  a  region  characterized  by  large,  sim- 
ple, and  easily  comprehensible  geographic  features. 
Europe  concerns  us  almost  as  much,  because  it  is  the 
cradle  of  our  people,  the  place  of  nurture  where  our 
race  came  by  its  motives  and  learned  how  to  act  its 
parts  in  the  new  theatre  of  the  western  world. 

The  continent  of  Europe  differs  from  the  other 
great  land-masses  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  singular 
aggregation  of  peninsulas  and  islands,  originating  in 
separate  centres  of  mountain  growth,  and  of  enclosed 
valleys  walled  about  from  the  outer  world  by  ele- 
vated summits.  Other  continents  are  somewhat 
peninsulated ;  Asia  approaches  Europe  in  that  re- 
spect; North  America  has  a  few  great  dependencies 


152  NATUKE   AND   MAX  IN   AMERICA. 

in  its  larger  islands  and  considerable  promontories ; 
but  Africa,  South  America,  and  Australia  are  singu- 
larly united  lands. 

The  highlj^  divided  state  of  Europe  has  greatly 
favored  the  development  within  its  area  of  isolated 
fields,  each  fitted  for  the  growth  of  a  separate  state, 
adapted  even  in  this  day  for  local  life,  although  com- 
merce in  our  time  binds  lands  together  in  a  way 
which  it  did  not  of  old.  These  separated  areas  were 
marvellously  suited  to  be  the  cradles  of  peoples ;  and 
if  we  look  over  the  map  of  Europe  we  readily  note 
the  geographic  insulations  which  that  remarkably 
varied  land  affords. 

Beginning  with  the  eastern  Mediterranean,  we  have 
the  peninsula  on  which  Constantinople  stands,  —  a 
region  only  partly  protected  from  assault  by  its  geo- 
graphic peculiarities ;  and  5^et  it  owes  to  its  partial 
separation  from  the  mainlands  on  either  side  a  large 
measure  of  local  historic  development.  Next  we  have 
Greece  and  its  associated  islands,  which  —  a  safe 
stronghold  for  centuries  —  permitted  the  nurture  of 
the  most  marvellous  life  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Farther  to  the  west  the  Italian  peninsula,  where 
during  three  thousand  years  the  protecting  envelope 
of  the  sea  and  the  walls  of  Alps  and  Apennines  have 
enabled  a  score  of  States  to  attain  a  development; 
where  the  Roman  nation,  absorbing,  with  its  singu- 
lar power  of  taking  in  other  life,  a  number  of 
primitive  centres  of  civilization,  grew  to  power 
which  made  it  dominant  in  the  ancient  world.     Sicily, 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  153 

Sardinia,  Corsica,  have  each  profited  by  their  isola- 
tion, and  have  bred  diverse  qualities  in  man,  and 
contributed  motives  which  have  interacted  in  the 
earth's  history.  Again,  in  Spain  we  have  a  region 
well  fitted  to  be  the  cradle  of  a  great  people ;  to  its 
geographic  position  it  owed  the  fact  that  it  became 
the  seat  of  the  most  cultivated  Mahometanism  the 
world  has  ever  known.  To  the  Pyrenees,  the  moun- 
tain wall  of  the  north,  we  owe  in  good  part  the  limi- 
tation of  that  Mussulman  invasion  and  the  protection 
of  central  Europe  from  its  forward  movement,  until 
luxury  and  half -faith  had  sapped  its  energies.  Going 
northward,  we  find  in  the  region  of  Normandy  the 
place  of  growth  of  that  fierce  but  strong  folk,  the 
ancient  Scandinavians,  who,  transplanted  there,  held 
their  ground,  and  grew  until  they  were  strong  enough 
to  conquer  Britain  and  give  it  a  large  share  of  the 
quality  which  belongs  to  our  own  state. 

To  a  trifling  geographic  accident  we  owe  the  isola- 
tion of  Great  Britain  from  the  European  continent ; 
and  all  the  marvellous  history  of  the  English  folk,  as 
we  all  know,  hangs  upon  the  existence  of  that  narrow 
strip  of  sea  between  the  Devon  coast  and  the  kindred 
lowlands  of  northern  France. 

The  isolation  of  Great  Britain  depends  upon  such 
peculiar  and  interesting  circumstances  that  we  may 
turn  aside  a  moment  from  the  thread  of  our  narra- 
tive to  see  how  this  strip  of  silver  sea  came  to  be  a 
fortress  ditch  between  the  continent  and  the  island. 
The  British  Channel  is  due,  in  the  first  place,  to  the 


154  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

peculiar  strength  of  the  tides  in  the  North  Atlantic. 
The  energy  of  these  tides  is  explained  by  the  fact 
that  the  North  Atlantic  is  a  somewhat  wedge-shaped 
basin  pointing  up  between  the  continents  of  Europe 
and  North  America.  The  tidal  wave  heaps  up  in 
this  great  re-entrant,  as  it  heaps  up  in  the  narrowing 
channels  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  Port  Royal  Sound, 
Boston  Harbor,  or  any  other  constricted  passage  lead- 
ing in  to  the  land.  Next  we  note  the  fact  that  in  the 
British  Channel  the  tides  hav?  a  rise  of  about 
twenty -five  feet,  as  they  sweep  through  its  open 
waters  from  the  Atlantic  toward  the  North  Sea ; 
while  in  the  neighboring  bay  of  Bristol,  or  the 
Severn  Channel,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  where  the 
bay  is  closed  at  its  head,  the  tides  rise  to  about  fifty 
feet  in  height. 

^  Going  back  to  the  last  geological  period,  we  are 
able  by  divers  facts  to  ascertain  that  there  was  a 
broad  isthmus  connecting  Great  Britain  with  the 
French  coast,  perhaps  extending  seaward  as  far  as 
the  limits  of  Belgium ;  there  was  a  bay  on  the  east 
and  a  bay  on  the  west  of  this  isthmus.  In  this  state 
we  may  make  sure  that  the  tides  running  directly 
into  the  Norman  Bay,  as  we  may  call  it,  on  the 
west,  and  the  Belgian  Bay  on  the  east,  were  consid- 
erably higher  than  they  are  at  present.  Now,  the 
cutting  energy  of  the  tide  depends  upon  the  speed  of 
the  streams  of  water  which  its  movement  brings 
about,  and  the  swiftness  of  these  streams  is  propor- 
tionate in  a  high  degree  to  the  altitude  the   tidal 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AiNIERICA.  155 

waters  attain  in  their  quick  successive  rise  and  fall. 
No  sooner  was  the  geographic  condition  we  have 
described  in  existence  than  the  tides  began  their 
work  of  driving  their  way  through  the  rocks  by  cut- 
ting out  and  scouring  off  into  the  deeper  sea  the 
materials  composing  the  shores.  In  a  short  time,  in 
a  geological  sense,  this  work  was  accomplished.  The 
Norman  Bay  broke  through  into  the  Belgian  Bay, 
and  the  waters  had  a  free  run  through  the  channel, 
which  we  may  presume  at  first  to  have  been  narrow. 
Although  the  tides  then,  when  the  land  was  severed, 
lost  a  considerable  part  pf  their  height,  they  were 
still,  as  they  are  at  the  present  time,  powerful 
agents  in  scouring  the  shores,  operating  to  work 
back  the  coasts  at  a  rate  which  in  a  geological  sense 
is  very  rapid. 

East  of  Britain  lie  two  peninsulas  which  have  been 
the  cradle  of  very  important  peoples.  That  of  Swe- 
den and  Norway  is  the  result  of  mountain  develop- 
ment ;  that  of  Denmark  appears  to  be  in  the  main  the 
product  of  glacial  and  marine  erosion,  differing  in 
its  non-mountainous  origin  from  all  the  other  penin- 
sulas and  islands  of  the  European  border.  Thus  on 
the  periphery  of  Europe  we  have  at  least  a  dozen 
geographical  isolated  areas,  sufficiently  large  and 
well  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  to  make 
them  the  seats  of  independent  social  life.  The  in- 
terior of  the  country  has  several  similarly,  though 
less  perfectly,  detached  areas.  Of  these  the  most 
important   lie   fenced  within  the   highlands  of  the 


156  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Alps.  In  that  extensive  system  of  mountain  dis- 
turbances we  have  the  geographical  conditions  which 
most  favor  the  development  of  peculiar  divisions  of 
men,  and  which  guard  such  cradled  peoples  from  the 
destruction  Avhich  so  often  awaits  them  on  the  plains. 
Thus,  while  the  folk  of  the  European  lowlands  have 
been  overrun  by  the  successive  tides  of  invasion, 
their  qualities  confused,  and  their  succession  of 
social  life  interrupted,  Switzerland  has  to  a  great 
extent,  by  its  mountain  walls,  protected  its  people 
from  the  troubles  to  which  their  lowland  neighbors 
have  been  subjected.  The  result  is  that  within  an 
area  not  twice  as  large  as  Massachusetts  we  find  a 
marvellous  diversity  of  folk,  as  is  shown  by  the 
variety  in  physical  aspect,  moral  quality,  language, 
and  creed  in  the  several  important  valleys  and  other 
divisions  of  that  complicated  topography. 

The  fact  that  Switzerland  has  maintained  its  local 
life  comparatively  undisturbed  by  the  powerful  States 
about  it  for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  is  due 
mainly  to  the  peculiar  geographic  conditions  which 
environ  its  folk. 

The  result  of  the  much-divided  geography  of  Europe 
has  been  that  the  continent  has  become  a  natural 
cradle  of  strong  peoples.  Almost  everywhere  the 
sea  is  near  by ;  save  in  Switzerland,  all  the  important 
centres  of  population  have  had  contact  with  the  deep, 
and  the  peculiar  enlargement  which  it  alone  can 
afford  to  man.  This  nearness  to  the  sea  insures  also 
a  tolerably  large  amount  of  rainfall,   which  affords 


NATXJRE  AOT)  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  157 

the  basis  of  a  varied  industry,  and  gives  the  lands  a 
measure  of  fertility  which  makes  it  possible  to  have 
a  considerable  population  on  a  small  area.  Compar- 
ing the  conditions  of  Europe  with  those  of  Asia,  we 
find  that  in  that  greater  continent  the  isolation  of 
areas  is  less  complete,  and  the  detached  masses  of 
land,  such  as  Arabia,  Hindustan,  Malacca,  Kam- 
schatka,  etc.,  are  not  well  placed  to  be  the  cradle  of 
several  great  races.  They  are  either  in  or  near  the 
tropics,  as  are  the  three  first-named  peninsulas ;  in 
high  latitudes,  as  Kamschatka  ;  or  made  deserts  by 
their  circumstances,  as  in  the  case  of  Arabia.  The 
highland  valleys  of  central  Asia  are  sterilized  either 
by  cold  or  drought.  The  industries  of  these  up- 
lands are  so  far  limited  that  varied  culture  is  impos- 
sible to  the  men  who  occupy  them.  Only  in  the 
peninsula  of  Anatolia,  or  Asia  Minor,  do  we  find  the 
conditions  for  the  culture  of  primitive  peoples  ap- 
proaching the  perfection  of  those  afforded  by  Europe ; 
and  it  is  only  in  that  section  of  Asia  that  we  find  the 
natural  cradles  of  peoples  such  as  abound  on  the 
European  continent. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  effect  of  diverse  degrees 
of  geographic  isolation  on  the  development  of  the 
peoples  who  inhabit  islands  or  peninsulas,  the  reader 
will  find  it  useful  to  consider  several  instances  in 
which  the  measure  of  separation  of  the  given  area 
from  the  neighboring  continents  varies  on  a  progres- 
sive scale.  For  this  purpose  he  may  take  three 
groups  of  islands  which  have  played  a  more  or  less 


m 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 


prominent  part  in  the  history  of  civilized  man; 
namely,  Great  Britain,  the  Japan  archipelago,  and 
Iceland.  The  British  archipelago  is  separated  from 
the  continent  of  Europe  by  only  a  narrow  strait, 
which  is  most  important  as  a  barrier  because  of  the 
strong  tides  and  waves  which  range  through  it.  So 
moderate  is  the  measure  of  separation  that  the  shores 
are  intervisible ;  and  even  in  the  earlier  days  of  navi- 
gation it  was  not  difficult  in  good  weather  for  the 
most  primitive  craft  to  cross  the  water.  So  slight 
and  recent  is  this  barrier  of  sea  that  almost  every 
species  of  animal  and  plant  in  Great  Britain  has  its 
equivalent  form  on  the  mainland.  Nevertheless  we 
note  the  fact  that  the  consequences  of  its  isolation 
have  in  the  history  of  man  been  most  momentous. 
Even  in  prehistoric  times  it  served  to  give  the  popu- 
lation of  each  of  this  group  of  islands  a  somewhat 
distinct  character. 

Considering  only  the  strictly  historic  part  of  human 
development  in  the  British  Isles,  we  note  in  the  first 
place  that  the  barrier  of  sea  delayed  the  Roman 
occupation  of  the  district,  and  limited  that  occupation 
to  the  principal  island.  We  perceive  furthermore 
that  the  Irish  Channel  has  kept  the  great  western 
island  singularly  separated  in  its  development  from 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  archipelago;  and  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  if  Ireland  had  been  as  closely 
linked  with  England  as  Scotland  is,  the  present 
political  and  social  isolation  of  the  Hibernian  popula- 
tion would  not  exist.     The  perfect  mergence  of  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  159 

Scottish  people  with  the  southern  British  is  doubt- 
less in  good  part  to  be  explained  by  the  geographic 
unity  of  the  two  countries.  In  the  one  case  there  is 
a  strong  physiographic  barrier,  and  in  the  other  the 
two  countries  are  indistinctly  separated. 

The  independent  development  of  the  British  State 
in  the  times  following  the  Norman  Conquest  is 
clearly  in  large  part  due  to  the  measure  of  protection 
afforded  by  the  British  Channel.  While  every  other 
country  on  the  continent  except  Scandinavia  —  which 
is  itself  practically  as  much  insulated  as  Great  Brit- 
ain —  has  felt  again  and  again  the  tread  of  conquering 
armies,  this  group  of  islands  has  been  exempt  from 
successive  incursions.  Repeatedly  military  combina- 
tions have  been  made  which  had  for  their  purpose 
the  subjugation  of  these  islands.  Some  of  these 
schemes  doubtless  would  have  been  successful  but  for 
the  resistance  to  invasion  which  this  strip  of  sea 
interposes. 

Few  students  of  Great  Britain  will  doubt  that  the 
insulated  character  of  the  land  has  proved  of  the 
utmost  importance  in  shaping  the  fortunes  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.  By  retaining  this  folk  in  close  but  safe 
connection  with  the  European  continent,  the  geo- 
graphic conditions  have  made  it  possible  for  the 
English  race  to  mature  its  qualities  and  to  extend  its 
dominion  in  the  world  in  a  more  perfect  manner  than 
would  otherwise  have  been  possible.  If  the  connec- 
tion between  Great  Britain  and  the  continent  which 
existed  during  the  Tertiary  period  had  been  main- 


160  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

tained  to  the  present  day,  the  history  of  the  civilized 
world  would  have  been  greatly  altered. 

Turning  now  to  the  Japanese  archipelago,  we  find 
in  that  part  of  the  world  a  group  of  islands  which  are 
more  separated  from  the  adjacent  continent  than  are 
the  British  Isles.  The  measure  of  the  isolation  is 
such  that  while  the  civilization  of  Japan  in  a  general 
way  resembles  that  of  China,  the  independence  of  its 
development,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  British 
Isles,  is  relatively  great.  There  has  been  no  such 
immigration  into  the  islands  from  the  mainland  as 
has  occurred  in  the  British  group  of  detached  lands. 
Thus,  though  the  Japanese  are  by  race  and  primal 
education  closely  related  to  the  Chinese,  they  have 
acquired  a  rather  distinct  civilization.  In  their  mo- 
tives they  have  departed  far  more  from  those  of  the 
neighboring  continent  than  have  the  British. 

For  our  third  instance  we  may  select  the  island 
of  Iceland,  where  colonists  of  the  Scandinavian  folk 
became  socially  and  commercially  to  a  great  degree 
separated  from  the  parent  country  a  thousand  years 
ago,  and  have  remained  ever  since  without  danger  of 
invasion,  free  to  work  out  their  development  without 
intermixture  of  the  blood  of  other  peoples.  While 
these  wonderful  islanders  have  remained  in  rather 
close  intellectual  relations  with  the  mainland  of 
Europe,  we  clearly  perceive  that  they  have  developed 
and  maintained  an  independent  civilization  of  a  re- 
markable character. 

Other  instances  to  show  a  yet  greater  independence, 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  161 

secured  b}^  a  more  complete  separation  of  islands  from 
the  mainland,  can  readily  be  fomid  in  such  cases 
as  are  afforded  by  the  Sandwich  Islands,  by  New 
Zealand,  or  other  lonely  lands  scattered  in  the  midst 
of  the  great  oceans.  In  each  of  these  fields  we  may 
note  that  the  life  of  the  people  is  peculiar  in  propor- 
tion to  the  measure  of  their  isolation  and  the  length 
of  time  for  which  it  has  endured. 

To  see  the  importance  of  these  conditions  to  the 
early  races  and  states,  we  must  conceive  the  state  of 
primitive  human  life ;  we  must  picture  to  ourselves 
conditions  very  different  from  those  prevailing  in  the 
present  day.  In  order  to  make  a  people,  —  to  elevate  a 
primitive  folk  to  the  state  where  it  possesses  national 
motives  and  distinct  moral  character,  and  a  culture 
which  develops  and  fits  that  character, —  we  must  give 
it  a  seat  where  varied  industries  are  possible,  a 
station  which  may  be  held  against  the  destructive 
effect  of  foreign  conquest  for  centuries,  if  not  thou- 
sands of  years,  while  the  qualities  of  the  inhab- 
itants are  undergoing  development.  These  qualities 
—  which  for  the  want  of  a  better  word  we  term 
national  —  being  developed  in  a  people,  the  move- 
ment of  migration  derived  from  the  growth  of  popu- 
lation brings  the  separate  communities  into  conten- 
tion with  one  another. 

The  curious  diversities  of  European  and  Asiatic 
folk  in  the  centuries  immediately  before  and  after 
the  birth  of  Christ  were  the  result  of  that  prepara- 
tion which  had  come  about  through  the  long  isolation 

11 


162  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  diverse  groups  of  men  in  their  several  cradles. 
Culture  in  the  arts  of  war  and  peace,  and  increase  of 
numbers  had  iDrought  these  separate  aggregations  of 
men  into  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium.  They 
were  ready  to  move ;  one  movement  of  conquest  led 
to  another,  until  in  time  these  peoples  were  all  in 
motion^  after  the  fashion  in  which  the  organic  as- 
semblages of  animals  and  plants  move  when  the 
topography  and  the  climate  of  a  continent  are  dis- 
turbed. This  process  of  movement  led  to  the  vast 
contention  which  brought  about  the  overthrow  of  the 
Roman  power,  and  made  an  end  of  the  dominancy 
which  the  Mediterranean  States  had  previously 
maintained. 

In  order  to  perceive  the  close  relation  which 
exists  between  the  migrations  of  primitive  men  and 
those  of  the  lower  animals,  it  is  perhaps  worth  while 
to  give  the  reader  a  brief  account  of  the  migratory 
movements  of  the  lemming  of  Lapland,  a  little  crea- 
ture closely  related  to  the  rat.  This  animal  inhabits 
the  district  of  the  Kolen,  in  the  northern  portion  of 
the  Scandinavian  peninsula.  Ordinarily  it  is  limited 
to  a  rather  narrow  field,  where  it  occupies  a  very 
inconspicuous  place  because  of  its  underground  habit 
of  life.  Occasionally,  however,  the  lemmings  are 
affected  by  the  migratory  spirit,  and  at  such  times 
they  gather  in  large  hordes  and  move  forth  from 
their  mountain  upland  toward  the  west,  through 
Northland  and  Finmark.  In  their  march  they 
proceed    in    continuous    columns,    the    leaders    of 


NATUEE  AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  163 

which  seek  to  make  a  way  directly  toward  the 
west.  When  encountering  an  obstacle,  they  will 
with  great  determination  seek  to  overcome  it,  and 
only  turn  aside  when  they  find  it  impossible  to  climb 
over  or  gnaw  through  the  barrier.  With  brief  pauses 
for  food,  they  proceed  on  their  way  until  they  arrive 
at  the  shore.  There  they  leap  into  the  water  and 
swim  toward  the  west  until  they  are  drowned. 

Many  other  instances  illustrative  of  a  similar  mi- 
gratory impulse  operating  in  mammals,  in  fishes,  in 
birds,  and  in  insects  could  be  given.  They  all  point 
to  the  conclusion  that  whenever  a  species  occupying 
a  rather  limited  field  increases  to  such  numbers  that 
the  supply  of  food  suited  to  their  needs  is  no  longer 
adequate,  they  become  endowed  with  this  singular 
mob-like  desire  to  win  their  way  to  other  lands.  In 
all  the  circumstances  of  their  migrations  they  remind 
us  of  the  forced  marches  which  the  Huns  and  various 
tribes  of  the  Aryan  folk  made  in  the  centuries  about 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 

It  is  now  the  opinion  of  those  best  versed  in  this 
complicated  question,  that  the  Aryan  people,  long 
supposed  to  have  been  cradled  in  central  Asia,  are 
really  the  children  of  Europe ;  that  they  were  devel- 
oped in  the  Scandinavian  peninsulas, —  a  field  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  seat  of  the  strongest  men  of 
the  world  for  thousands  of  years.  This  view  is  more 
satisfactory  to  the  naturalist  than  the  older  opinion, 
which  placed  the  cradle  of  the  Aryans  in  northern 
or   central   Asia.     It   seemed  an  anomaly  that  the 


164  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

most  vigorous  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  plastic 
of  the  world-peoples  should  have  developed  amid  the 
limited  opportunities  afforded  by  high  Asia,  vrhere 
the  chance  of  education  in  arts  and  in  commerce  is 
very  small  compared  to  what  it  is  in  Scandinavia,  or 
indeed  in  any  of  the  European  peninsulas.  If  on 
a  ffiori  considerations  the  naturalist  were  compelled 
to  designate  the  natural  seat  in  which  our  race  ob- 
tained its  qualities,  there  is  no  other  site  which 
would  so  satisfactorily  meet  his  view  as  to  the  needs 
as  the  peninsulated  district  about  the  Baltic ;  there, 
better  than  anywhere  else,  men  may  find  a  hardy, 
though  not  so  strenuous  climate  as  to  diminish  the 
vitality  or  send  all  the  energies  to  the  care  for  im- 
mediate needs.  There  the  variation  in  the  seasons, 
the  variety  of  soil,  the  contacts  with  the  sea  are  all 
admirably  suited  for  the  training  of  a  folk.  From 
that  great  nursery  of  vigor  we  can  well  conceive  the 
Aryan  people,  protected  in  their  infancy  by  the  iso- 
lation of  their  birthplace,  in  time  going  forth  in 
their  strength  to  dominate  the  world  from  eastern 
India  to  the  Atlantic.  Thence  again,  in  the  Danish 
Northmen  days,  went  forth  a  second  tide  of  strength. 
We  look  indeed  with  satisfaction,  from  the  natural- 
ist's point  of  view,  on  the  fact  that  in  the  peninsu- 
las of  Scandinavia  and  in  the  islands  of  the  British 
archipelago  we  find  the  source  of  origin  of  the  dom- 
inant people  in  the  world ;  for  there  more  perfectly 
than  anywhere  else  is  the  environment  adapted  to 
making  strong  races. 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  165 

After  a  race  has  been  formed  and  bred  to  cer- 
tain qualities  within  a  limited  field,  after  it  has 
come  to  possess  a  certain  body  of  characteristics 
which  gives  it  its  particular  stamp,  the  importance 
of  the  original  cradle  passes  away.  There  is  some- 
thing very  curious  in  the  permanence  of  race  condi- 
tions after  they  have  been  fixed  for  a  thousand  years 
or  so  in  a  people.  When  the  assemblage  of  physical 
and  mental  motives  are  combined  in  a  body  of  coun- 
try folk,  they  may  endure  under  circumstances  in 
which  they  could  not  have  originated ;  thus,  even  in 
our  domesticated  animals  and  plants,  we  find  that 
varieties  created  under  favorable  conditions,  obtain- 
ing their  inheritances  in  suitable  conditions,  may 
then  flourish  in  many  conditions  of  environment  in 
which  they  could  not  by  any  chance  have  originated. 
The  barnyard  creatures  of  Europe,  with  their  estab- 
lished qualities,  may  be  taken  to  Australia,  and 
there  retain  their  nature  for  many  generations ;  even 
where  the  form  falls  away  from  the  parent  stock,  the 
decline  is  generally  slow,  and  may  not  for  a  great 
time  become  apparent. 

This  fixity  of  race  characteristics  has  enabled  the 
several  national  varieties  of  men  to  go  forth  from 
their  nurseries,  carrying  the  qualities  bred  in  their 
earlier  conditions  through  centuries  of  life  in  other 
climes.  The  Gothic  blood  of  Italy  and  of  Spain  still 
keeps  much  of  its  parent  strength;  the  Aryan's  of 
India,  though  a  world  apart  in  its  conditions  from 
those  which  gave  it  character  in  its  cradle,  is  still, 


166  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

in  many  of  its  qualities,  distinctly  akin  to  that  of  the 
home  people.  Moor,  Hun,  and  Turk,  —  all  the  numer- 
ous folk  we  find  in  the  present  condition  of  the  world 
so  far  from  their  cradle-lands,  are  still  to  a  great 
extent  what  their  primitive  nurture  made  them.  On 
this  rigidity  which  comes  to  mature  races  in  the 
lower  life  as  well  as  in  man,  depends  the  vigor  with 
which  they  do  their  appointed  work. 

These  considerations  will  be  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  us  in  our  study  of  the  effect  of  physiographic 
conditions  found  in  North  America  upon  the  folk 
derived  from  other  lands,  which  are  to  work  out 
their  history  upon  its  surface.  The  Americas, 
Africa,  and  Australia  have  shown  by  their  human 
products  that  they  are  unfitted  to  be  the  cradle-places 
of  great  peoples.  Vast  as  has  been  the  development 
of  human  life  upon  them,  these  continents  have 
never  from  their  own  blood  built  a  race  that  has 
risen  above  barbarism. 

Northern  Africa  early  became  the  seat  of  Asiatic 
and  European  folk,  who  remained  separated  from  the 
body  of  that  continent  by  a  region  of  deserts.  The 
southern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  afforded  fair 
opportunities  for  the  independent  differentiation  of 
States,  the  result  of  which  is  expressed  in  its  history ; 
but  the  national  motives  of  Egypt,  of  Carthage,  and 
of  Moorish  civilization  which  grew  up  in  northern 
Africa  are  all  exotic.  These  States  all  represent  the 
development  of  peoples  who  were  cradled  elsewhere. 
So,    too,    the  semi-civilized  condition  of  Abyssinia 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  A3IERICA.  167 

is   due   to  the  implanting  there   of   peoples   not   of 
African  origin. 

Although  the  primitive  races  of  Africa  have  never 
attained    anything   like    civilization,    there   is   rea- 
son to  believe    that    they    rose    aboye    the    low^est 
savagery  in  a  very  ancient  time,   attaining  at  a  re- 
mote period  to  about  their  present  condition  of  cul- 
ture.   This  fact  is  indicated  not  only  by  the  very  great 
differences  in  the  languages  spoken  by  the  various 
tribes,  but  also  by  the  condition  of  their  agricultural 
and  other  arts.     While  languages  may  under  favor- 
able   circumstances    rapidly   become    differentiated, 
the  arts,  particularly  those  which  pertain  to  agricul- 
ture, seem  generally  to  be  of  much  slower  growth. 
Among  the  African  peoples  we  find  a  great  variety 
of  cultivated  vegetables  belonging  to  a  few  primitive 
wild   stocks.     These  simple   groups   of  plants  have 
become    remarkably   diversified   among  the   various 
peoples,  so  that  varieties  in  the  kinds  appear  on  the 
whole  to  be  much  greater  than  those  which  have  been 
secured    by   the   agricultural    skill    of    the   Aryan, 
Semitic,   or  Tartar  peoples.      The  same  is  the  case 
with  the  household   arts.     When   we   compare  the 
state  of  this  traditional  constructive  work  with  that 
of  our  North  ximerican  Indians,  we  are  struck  by  the 
fact  that  in  Africa  the  occupations  of  the  people  have 
become   extremely   differentiated,    while    in    North 
America  the  variety  in  this  regard  is  relatively  slight. 
In  Australia  there  has  never  been  an  elevation  of 
the   people   above   the   grade    of   savagery.      In   the 


168  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERJpA. 

Americas  the  only  movement  which  elevated  the 
folk  above  the  lowest  grades  of  barbarism  is  that 
which  took  place  at  certa-ift  points  in  the  Cordilleran 
chain,  where  mountain  'aistricts  afforded  a  measm-e 
of  isolation  and  protection  such  as  is  necessary  for 
the  dawn  of  any  culture  whatsoever.  All  the  rest  of 
these  continents,  so  far  as  we  can  interpret  their  hu- 
man history,  have  been  characterized  by  the  endless 
disturbed  wanderings  of  savages,  tribe  set  against  tribe, 
making  life  so  precarious  that  culture  was  impossible. 
A  glance  at  the  geographic  conditions  of  North 
America  will  sho#  the  observer,  especially  if  he  will 
compare  the  conditiona,i  with  those  of  Europe,  how 
unfitted  is  this  continent  to  be  the  cradle-place  of 
peoples.  This  continent  is  in  the  main  a  geographic 
unit.  The  detached  masses  which  border  it  are,  by 
the  circumstances  of  climate  or  of  surface,  unfitted 
to  give  the  isolation  necessary  for  the  nurture  of 
people.  This  will  be  evident  on  a  brief  review  of 
the  geography  of  this  continent. 

Beginning  with  the  southern  extremity  of  North 
America,  we  find  in  that  region  a  limited  measure  of 
isolation  brought  about  by  mountain  barriers.  Cen- 
tral America  and  Mexico  are  to  a  certain  extent  pro- 
tected by  such  natural  defences,  but  in  this  region 
the  climate  is  not  suited  to  the  best  conditions  of 
man.  Although  our  species  came  from  tropical 
creatures  akin  to  the  anthropoid  apes,  men  need 
the  stress  of  high  latitudes,  the  moral  and  physi- 
cal tonic  effect  of  cold,  to  drive  them  into  those  in- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMI  160 

teractions  of  activity  wlch  constitute  ion. 

Going  up  the  eastward  face  of  Nortli  Ameriiu,  we 
find  in  the  Antilles  an  assemblage  of  lands  which 
'')ut  for  their  tropical  climate. .might  have  favored  the 
growth  of  civilization.  Next  we  come:  to  Florida,  y 
geographic  unit  of  considerable  importance.  This 
area  has,  however,  a  subtropical  climate,  and  a  sur- 
face by  no  means  favorable  to  primitive  agriculture. 
It  demands  the  resources  of  the  modern  farmer  to 
win  crops  from  the  soil.  Moreover,  there  are  no 
barriers  save  those  of  swsemps  and  forests  to  this 
field.  Every  part  of  th#/surface  could  easily  be 
ranged  over  by  nomads, -?y 

From  Florida  to  east^ti  Nova  vScotia  and  New- 
foundland there  are  no  "^'ell-isolated  fields  on  the 
coast-line  of  North  America.  Cape  Breton  and 
Newfoundland,  the  island  of  Anticosti  and  that  of 
Prince  Edward,  iia:^l■e  something  of  the  geographic 
unity  which ''belongs  to  the  cradle-lands  of  Europe 
and  Asia;  but  in  the  aboriginal  days  of  North 
America  these  regions  were  too  far  north  for  agricul- 
tural industries.  Maize,  the  principal  agricultural 
plant  with  the  Indians,  would  hardly  develop  there. 
The  barbarous  folk  were  therefore  retained  in  the 
state  of  hunters  or  fishermen, —  conditions  which  do 
not  permit  peoples  to  emerge  from  the  grade  of 
savagery.  Needs  cannot  advance  in  those  lowly 
states  of  existence ;  there  is  no  basis  for  commerce, 
no  foundation  for  the  progress  of  the  desires  on 
which  all  high  culture  depends.     The  man  is  what 


170  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

he  seeks,  what  he  desires  and  must  obtain.  All 
civilization  is  the  outgrowth  of  strivings  which  go 
beyond  momentary  physical  needs;  and  therefore 
until  agriculture  affords  a  firm  foundation  for  sub- 
sistence, until  life  is  by  the  soil  made  something 
more  than  a  struggle  for  momentary  support,  the 
foundations  of  culture  cannot  be  obtained.  North  of 
Newfoundland  and  through  all  the  part  of  the  con- 
tinent which  faces  the  ice-bound  seas,  the  conditions 
are  too  rigorous  to  permit  the  development  of  agri- 
culture, and  therefore  the  geographic  environment 
could  not  secure  the  cradling  of  well-developed  races. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  region  of  Alaska.  Maize 
culture  is  impossible  until  we  advance  southward  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  to  the  region  which  is  beyond  the 
peninsulated  district  of  eastern  America.  This 
coast  is  rather  uniform  in  its  physical  and  climatic 
character  until  we  come  to  the  vast  promontory  of 
southern  California.  This  latter  district  is  in. form 
not  unlike  that  of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula;  but  it 
is  an  arid  country,  affording  no  basis  for  agriculture, 
remaining  to  this  day  essentially  an  unknown  desert. 
From  Lower  California  to  the  isthmus,  the  shore  is 
again  without  isolated  areas  of  land. 

The  interior  of  North  America  is  even  more  undi- 
vided than  its  shore-line.  Along  the  eastern  coast 
extends  the  great  mountain  system  of  the  Appala- 
chians, the  highest  points  of  which  rise  to  about 
sixty -five  hundred  feet  above  the  sea;  but  the  struc- 
ture of  the  ranges  is  such  as  to  make  no  enclosures  of 


NATURE  AXD  ,MAH  IN  AMERICA         %  ill 

well-defined  mountain-walled  basins.  Every  part  of 
the  Appalachians  is  open  to  the  free  movements  of 
savage  men;  the  best  protected  valleys  would  offer 
no  immunity  to  a  nascent  civilization  in  its  strug- 
gle with  more  barbarous  folk.  We  see  something  of 
the  unfitness  of  this  shore-line  of  our  continent  for 
the  cradling  of  great  races  in  the  history  of  Euro- 
pean settlements  on  this  shore.  Every  colony  which 
was  planted  in  North  America  had  to  enter  into  com- 
bat with  a  host  of  savages.  There  were  no  natural 
strongholds,  such  as  abound  on  the  coast  of  Europe, 
and  such  as  afforded  the  foundation  of  the  Greek 
colonies  all  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  or 
to  the  Northmen  all  the  way  from  their  own  land 
around  to  the  shores  of  Sicily.  So  the  European 
colonists,  until  they  came  to  gain  strength  by  num- 
bers, were,  despite  their  superior  arts  and  arms,  their 
stronger  morale  and  training  in  the  art  of  statecraft 
and  war,  in  jeopardy  for  generations  after  their  com- 
ing to  the  massive  continent.  The  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  great  central  trough  of  the  continent, 
is  unbroken  by  barriers  from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  Rocky  Mountains,  by  their  greater  height  and 
certain  peculiarities  in  their  construction,  afford  a 
good  many  enclosed  valleys  which  under  more  favor- 
able circumstances  might  have  become  the  seat  of  a 
vigorous  life.  Unfortunately  this  region  is  exces- 
sively arid.  There  can  practically  be  no  tillage 
within  its  limits  except  by  devices  of  an  engineering 
sort,  by  which  water  is  led  from  scanty  streams  upon 


'r  j.il*r^      NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  land;  and  even  with  this  resource  the  population 
cannot  readily  attain  the  numbers  which  are  neces- 
sary for  the  development  of  culture. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  rather  to  the  physical 
conditions  of  North  America  than  to  any  primal  in- 
capacity on  the  part  of  its  indigenous  peoples  to  take 
on  civilization,  that  we  must  attribute  the  failure  of 
indigenous  man  within  its  limits  to  advance  beyond 
the  lowest  grades  of  barbarism.  The  Indian  shows 
us  in  many  ways  that  he  is  an  able  person.  We  may 
judge  any  folk  by  their  greater  men,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  ablest  of  our  American  savages 
rank  high  in  the  intellectual  scale.  It  is,  it  seems 
to  me,  to  the  ceaseless  disturbances  of  nascent  civili- 
zation that  we  owe  the  failure  of  this  folk  to  attain 
to  a  higher  grade.  Each  tribe  which  retained  its 
primitive  savage  impulse  of  migration  became,  as 
did  the  Shawnees,  a  kind  of  Hun,  to  sweep  away  in 
their  foragings  the  beginnings  of  the  higher  state  to 
which  other  folk  might  have  attained.  As  long  as  a 
race  is  purely  savage,  dwelling  in  isolated  communi- 
ties, it  does  not  seem  endowed  with  any  considerable 
mobility.  When  by  the  arts  which  constitute  the 
next  advance,  and  bring  the  people  to  the  state  of 
barbarism,  they  become  dangerous  to  their  neigh- 
.  bors,  their  motives  are  stronger,  and  they  are  com- 
monly numerous  enough  to  make  war  successfully. 
Not  tied  by  systematic  agriculture  or  by  architecture 
to  any  particular  piece  of  ground,  they  prey  upon 
their  better  provided  neighbor,  and  so  break  up  their 
incipient   states.     Little  as  we  know  of  the  tribal 


:.*"*« 


*ff- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  ifsfeP^ 

movements  in  America,  we  have  yet  learned  enough 
concerning  them  to  see  how  certain  bands  of  barba- 
rians swept  to  and  fro,  sometimes  in  the  course  of  a 
century,  making  marches  comparable  to  those  of 
Goths  and  Huns  of  the  Old  World,  and  bringing  equal 
destruction  in  their  path.  The  Goths  and  Huns 
were  perhaps  abler  people  than  our  American 
Indians  in  their  best  estate;  moreover,  they  devas- 
tated States  which  were  so  strong  as  not  to  be  utterly 
destroyed  by  their  movements.  The  first  effect  of 
their  coming  was  in  good  part  to  overwhelm  society ; 
but  there  was  enough  left,  as  we  all  know,  to  subdue 
the  savages  by  the  arts  of  peace.  But  if  southern  Eu- 
rope had  been  struck  by  the  northern  invasion  a  thou- 
sand years  before  the  tide  broke  upon  them,  the  Goths 
would  have  had  to  invent  their  own  civilization  in 
place  of  appropriating  and  being  appropriated  by  the 
earlier  culture. 

If  the  problem  before  our  race  on  this  continent 
were  that  of  cradling  civilizations,  we  should  have 
no  right  to  draw  a  bright  picture  as  to  the  future  of 
American  life.  Fortunately,  however,  the  question 
is  that  of  disseminating  and  maintaining  race  char- 
acteristics bred  elsewhere,  of  bringing  those  charac- 
teristics into  interaction  on  a  field  favorable  for  their 
best  development.  For  this  purpose  the  surface  of 
North  America  affords  peculiar  advantages.  The 
nature  and  limitations  of  these  conditions  we  shall 
now  have  to  consider. 

STATENORMALSCHOOL, 

UOB  iMGBlSS,  ->  CAU 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Geographic  Relations  of  North  America;  Variations  of  these  Relations  in 
former  Geologic  Periods.  —  Peculiar  Fitness  of  North  America  for  the 
Nurture  of  Plant  Life;  Inferior  Position  of  its  Animals.  — Contributions 
of  North  America  to  the  Domesticated  Animals  and  Plants  of  Civilizar 
tion.  —  Relative  Measure  of  Relation  of  North  America  with  Europe  and 
with  Asia.  —  Origin  of  North  American  Indians.  —  Conditions  of  first 
Settlement  by  Man.  —  Condition  of  American  Indians  when  the  Country 
was  first  settled  by  the  Whites.  —  Effect  of  the  Buffalo  on  the  Habits  of 
Indians;  Region  of  Prairies.  —  Settlement  of  America  by  Europeans; 
Conditions  which  led  thereto.  — Scandinavian,  Spanish,  French,  and 
English  Settlements.  —  Importance  of  Geographic  Features  in  determining 
Success  of  tlie  various  Colonies;  Eft'ect  of  the  Appalachian  Barrier. — 
Influence  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi  Rivers.  —  Influence  of  the 
Tobacco  Plant. — Settlement  of  the  Mississippi  Valley;  Effect  of  the 
Geographic  Conditions  therein. 

In  considering  the  physiographic  conditions  of  any 
area,  with  reference  to  the  development  of  organic 
life  upon  it,  the  life  of  man  as  well  as  of  lower 
beings,  we  have  to  note  not  only  the  circumstances 
of  the  given  field,  its  soils,  climate,  and  shape  of  the 
surface,  but  also  the  relations  of  the  area  to  the 
neighboring  districts,  which  in  the  process  of  geo- 
graphical change,  brought  about  by  the  development 
of  mountains  and  continents,  may  send  contributions 
to  its  inhabitants.  We  must  therefore  now  turn  our 
attention  to  the  relations  of  contact  between  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America  and  the  other  land-masses 
of  the  world,  particularly  those  of  the  northern 
hemisphere. 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN-AMERICA.  ""175 

A  glance  at  the  map  shows  us  that  North  America 
is  geographically  related  to  the  Old  World,  both  on 
the  east  and  west.  Geological  history  tells  us  that 
from  time  to  time  the  measure  of  this  relation  of  our 
country  to  the  lands  of  Europe  and  Asia  has  varied 
greatly,  the  present  condition  being  only  one  state 
of  those  connections.  In  the  preceding  geological 
ages,  although  we  cannot  as  yet  construct  the  ancient 
geography  with  any  accuracy,  we  can  still  discern 
that  the  relations  of  the  continent,  as  regards  the 
freedom  of  its  organic  intercourse  with  Europe  ard 
Asia  and  South  America,  have  varied  much. 

The  American  continents  seem,  from  the  record  of 
the  rocks,  to  have  been  better  constituted  for  the 
nurture  of  plant  than  of  animal  life.  A  good  meas- 
ure of  this  difference  may  be  had  from  the  contribu- 
tion which  America  has  made  to  the  animals  and 
plants  which  are  domesticated  by  man.  It  needs  no 
argument  to  show  that  in  order  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  man's  uses,  animals  and  plants  must  be 
highly  specialized,  having  peculiarities  of  strength 
as  in  our  horses  and  elephants,  a  tamable  nature  as 
in  almost  all  our  domesticated  animals,  highly  organ- 
ized fruits,  seeds,  or  fibres  as  in  the  most  of  our  cul- 
tivated plants ;  in  other  words,  it  is  in  general  from 
the  highest  members  of  each  organic  series  that  man 
selects  the  forms  which  he  is  to  domesticate  in  his 
barnyard  or  his  tilled  fields.  With  this  point  in 
mind,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  North  and  South 
America  and  Australia,   though  they  have  about  as 


It6  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

many  species  of  vertebrates  as  the  Old  World,  have 
contributed  but  one  animal  to  the  domestic  uses  of 
civilized  man,  —  the  wild  turkey ;  while  the  Old 
World  has  given  more  than  a  score  to  such  service. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  contribution  of  plants  to  do- 
mestication from  the  Americas  has  been  most  impor- 
tant. Indeed,  we  may  say  that  the  plants  which  the 
New  World  has  afforded  have  been  sufficient  to  make 
somethii'ag  like  a  revolution  in  the  economic  condi- 
tions of  our  civilization.  The  potato  and  Indian 
corn  have  profoundly  altered  the  agriculture  of 
Europe.  Tobacco  has  changed  the  habits  of  men 
throughout  a  large  part  of  the  world.  The  species 
of  cinchona  whence  comes  quinine  have  been  of  inval- 
uable advantage  to  human  life ;  and  a  score  of  other 
American  species,  such  as  the  tomato,  have  come 
to  play  a  more  or  less  important  part  in  the  field  or 
garden.  All  these  species  of  plants  are  highly 
elaborated  forms;  and  the  number  of  them  which 
have  been  contributed  to  man's  needs  from  the  New 
World  shows  the  relatively  high  differentiation  of 
plant  life  in  the  American  continents. 

The  geographic  conditions  which  determine  the 
relations  of  America  to  the  centres  of  human  devel- 
opment in  the  Old  World  are  fixed  by  the  position  of 
the  lands  and  the  currents  of  the  sea.  By  both  these 
sets  of  circumstances.  North  America  is  more  clearly 
related  to  Asia  than  it  is  to  Europe. 

Since  the  coming  of  man  upon  the  earth  the  geo- 
graphic relations  of  this  continent  have  most  likely 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN   AMERICA.  17T 

been  more  intimate  with  the  Asiatic  land-mass  than 
with  that  of  Europe.  It  is  possible  that  during  the 
glacial  period  the  region  about  Behring's  Strait  was 
lowered  beneath  the  sea,  but  the  subsidence  was 
probably  of  a  temporary  nature.  We  may  reckon 
that  the  continents  have  generally,  at  least  since  the 
beginning  of  the  Tertiary  period,  been  nearer  to- 
gether in  the  northern  Pacific  than  in  the  northern 
Atlantic.  The  great  depth  of  the  ocean  basin  be- 
tween the  coasts  of  America  and  those  of  Europe 
points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  great  lands  in  that 
part  of  the  wol^ld  have  long  been  widely  separated. 
Moreover,  the  ocean  currents  of  the  northern  Pacific 
favor  the  movement  of  man  as  well  as  the  migration 
of  animals  which  may  float  on  chance  rafts  from  the 
region  of  China  and  Japan  to  western  North  America, 
while  they  oppose  the  westward  movement  of  peo- 
ples from  Europe  to  the  American  shore ;  the  set  of 
the  atmospheric  currents  operates  to  the  same  end. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  sailing  voyage,  even 
to  our  modern  ships,  requires  very  much  longer  time 
from  western  Europe  to  eastern  America  than  in  the 
direct  passage  from  this  country.  In  the  earlier 
states  of  the  navigator's  art,  before  the  invention  of 
the  keel,  it  Avas  well-nigh  impossible  for  the  primi- 
tive craft  to  find  their  way  across  the  northern  At- 
lantic to  the  European  coast,  while  the  chance  of 
currents  in  ocean  and  air  tended  to  bring  vessels 
from  the  eastern  shores  of  Asia  to  the  western  coasts 
of  North  America.     Hence  it  came  about  that  the 

12 


178  NATURE  AND  ]VIAN  IN  AMERICA. 

first  men  planted  on  the  American  continent  were 
probably  Asiatic  in  their  origin ;  and  these  peoples 
remained  for  many  centuries  unaffected  by  the  higher 
races  bred  in  the  more  favorable  conditions  of 
Europe.  It  should  be  noted  that  this  point  is  dis- 
puted by  some  recent  writers,  but  the  position  still 
seems  tenable. 

It  is  barely  possible  that  some  chance  drifting  of 
ships  containing  people  blown  away  from  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Mediterranean  may  have  found  a  lodg- 
ment on  the  coast  of  South  America,  to  which  they 
were  brought  by  the  equatorial  stream.  The  distance 
is,  however,  so  great,  and  the  time  of  the  journey  so 
long,  that  it  is  improbable  that  a  ship  scantily  pro- 
visioned as  were  the  vessels  of  old,  should  have 
borne  living  voyagers  across  this  wide  field  of  wa- 
ters. The  Peruvian  traditions  appear  to  point  to 
the  coming  of  their  royal  house  from  the  East.  It 
has  been  conjectured,  by  fanciful  interpreters  of  those 
myths,  that  this  race  was  of  European  origin.  It 
appears  on  inquiry  that  there  is  nothing  which  may 
be  called  evidence  to  support  this  opinion. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  in  the  case  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals chance  wanderers  to  any  land  would  have  great 
difficulty  in  establishing  themselves  on  the  new- 
found shore.  Difficulties  arising  from"  the  lack  of 
reconciliation  with  the  environment,  the  unaccus- 
tomedness  of  the  food,  the  unfitness  of  organization 
and  habit  to  withstand  the  attacks  of  native  enemies, 
would,  in  most  cases,  lead  to  their  destruction.     The 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.      179 

history  of  North  America  shows  very  clearly  how 
this  principle  holds  in  the  case  of  human  settlement 
as  well  as  that  of  the  lower  animals.  The  first 
European  colonies  to  be  planted  in  North  America, 
though  reasonably  well  provided  with  the  resources 
necessary  for  the  colonist,  had  a  hard  battle  to  fight 
with  their  new  conditions.  Disease  and  native  ene- 
mies brought  many  of  these  settlements  to  destruc- 
tion. Chance  voyagers  in  drifting  ships,  cast  upon 
the  shore  without  provision  for  their  immediate 
needs,  would  have  a  yet  more  arduous  battle  before 
them.  Therefore,  though  we  may  have  had  acciden- 
tal immigration  of  European  men  to  our  American 
shores,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  none  of  these 
accidents  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  higher  races 
of  the  Old  World  on  this  continent,  until  in  modern 
times  its  colonization  was  determinedly  undertaken 
by  civilized  people. 

As  long  as  North  America  was  unoccupied  by 
man,  its  settlement  from  Asia  would  have  been  rela- 
tively easy.  As  soon  as  it  had  been  filled  with  the 
descendants  of  Asiatic  peoples  to  the  point  where  the 
population  was  as  dense  as  savagery  permits,  any 
further  settlement  would  have  been  difficult,  for  the 
same  reason  that  it  was  hard  for  the  Europeans  to 
make  good  their  lodgement  on  the  Atlantic  shore. 
History  makes  us  familiar  with  the  fact  that  the 
colonies  which  came  to  the  Atlantic  coast  from  the 
Old  World,  except  certain  settlements  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  some  of  the  early  French  establishments, 


180  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

found  themselves  in  immediate  hostile  contact  with 
the  aborigines.  The  struggle  for  existence  between 
the  two  kinds  of  men  would  in  all  cases  have  led  to 
the  extinction  of  the  new-comers,  had  it  not  been 
that  their  ranks  were  fed  by  continuous  reinforce 
ments  from  the  Old  World.  Thus,  as  soon  as  the 
continent  was  peopled  from  Asia,  it  stood  out  against 
further  settlements,  whether  they  came  by  chance  or 
by  design.  In  this  way  we  may  account  for  the 
failure  of  Asiatic  colonies  representing  the  higher 
life  of  Japan  and  China  to  establish  themselves  on 
the  Pacific  coast.  It  is  almost  certain  that  America 
was  peopled  before  those  civilizations  were  developed, 
and  so  there  were  tribes  of  savages  ready  to  oppose 
the  occupation  of  the  country  by  the  higher  life 
which  in  time  grew  up  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
Indo-European  continent. 

We  now  come  to  the  effect  of  the  geography  of 
North  America  on  its  savage  tribes. 

The  effect  of  the  physiographic  conditions  of  North 
America  upon  the  development  of  the  aboriginal 
peoples  is  so  obscure  as  not  to  warrant  much  more 
discussion  than  we  have  given  to  it.  There  are, 
however,  certain  points  which  demand  further  in- 
quiry. We  have  already  noticed  the  fact  that  the 
massive  geographic  form  of  North  America  did  not 
favor  the  creation  of  those  divisions  between  people 
which  are  such  a  striking  feature  in  Europe  and 
Asia.  The  several  tribes,  developing  evidently  from 
the  family  relation,  could  only  attain  a  limited  meas- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  181 

ure  of  separate  growth.  If  any  of  these  ancient 
peoples  could  have  found  shelter  such  as  a  Swiss 
valley  or  a  Scandinavian  peninsula  affords,  the 
original  differentiation  dependent  on  the  family  tie 
would  have  readily  extended  into  the  larger  bond  of 
the  state,  but  from  the  lack  of  geographic  isolation, 
war,  and  various  other  accidents  naturally  arising  in 
this  massive  and  undivided  continent,  led  quickly  to 
a  limitation  in  the  measure  of  tribal  development. 
In  Mexico  and  in  certain  other  sequestered  parts 
of  the  Cordilleran  region,  where  the  people  were  in 
part  protected  by  natural  defences,  the  folk  advanced 
to  a  somewhat  higher  grade  of  civilization  than  that 
which  generally  characterized  our  American  savages ; 
but  even  in  these  regions  the  protection  was  incom- 
plete, and  the  folk  were  at  all  times  liable  to  destruc- 
tive incursions  from  neighboring  less  civilized 
tribes. 

It  appears  from  certain  fragments  of  evidence,  that 
some  of  our  American  Indians,  a  few  centuries  be- 
fore the  coming  of  the  whites  to  the  shores  of  the 
continent,  were  in  a  rather  higher  state  of  advance 
than  that  in  which  they  were  found  by  the  first  Euro- 
peans. Thus  in  the  Mississippi  valley  the  people 
were  evidently  more  sedentary,  some  time  about  a 
thousand  years  ago,  than  they  were  when  their  con- 
ditions first  became  a  matter  of  historic  record. 
This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  tribes  had  attained 
a  point  where  they  constructed  extensive  earthworks 
both  for  the  purpose  of  defence  and  to  indulge  them- , 


182  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

selves  in  the  expression  of  certain  religious  ideas. 
The  Ohio  and  the  Upper  Mississippi  valleys  abound 
in  the  tumuli  and  fortifications  which  apparently 
indicate  that  the  people  had  been  more  numerous 
than  they  were  when  our  race  first  knew  them ;  that 
they  depended  more  upon  agriculture  and  less  upon 
the  chase  than  their  successors  who  met  the  white 
man  when  he  first  came  to  this  country. 

For  a  long  time  these  aboriginal  monuments  were 
esteemed  sufficient  evidence  to  prove  that  the  country 
had  been  inhabited  by  a  peculiar  race,  to  which  the 
name  of  "  Mound-Builders "  was  given.  We  now 
know  that  these  works  were  constructed  by  the  im- 
mediate ancestors  of  our  American  Indians,  and 
that,  indeed,  in  the  more  southern  parts  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi valley,  as  for  instance  in  northern  Missis- 
sippi, the  people  had  not  quite  abandoned  the 
mound-building  habit  when  they  came  in  contact 
with  the  whites.  The  cause  of  this  decadence  is  in- 
teresting. The  explanation  seems  to  be  as  follows : 
In  the  state  of  savagery  men  depend  altogether  upon 
the  products  of  the  chase,  or  upon  the  unfilled  re- 
sources of  the  vegetation  about  them.  As  the  popu- 
lation increases,  the  game  becomes  less  abundant,  and 
the  folk  are  gradually  driven  to  tillage.  They  be- 
come sedentary ;  they  exercise  the  forethought  which 
agriculture  requires,  and  so  advance  to  the  next 
higher  stage  in  development,  where  they  depend  in 
the  main  upon  the  resources  which  the  soil  affords. 
Each  further  increase  in  the  population  diminishes 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  183 

the  relative  value  of  the  hunter's  art,  and  tends  to 
separate  the  people  from  the  vagarious  and  brutal- 
izing habits  of  their  ancestors,  who  lived  by  the 
chase. 

In  the  higher  state  of  development,  such  great 
constructions  as  Fort  Ancient  or  the  Picture  Mounds 
of  the  Upper  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  valleys  become 
possible ;  and  to  this  state  the  peoples  of  the  Ohio 
and  neighboring  valleys  appear  to  have  arrived  some 
centuries  before  the  advent  of  Europeans.  Then 
came  a  peculiar  biological  accident  which  shows  us 
how  dependent  man  is  upon  the  other  living  tenants 
of  the  earth  he  inhabits.  In  the  pre-European  state 
of  the  country,  probably  down  to  some  time  after  the 
year  1000,  the  American  bison  or  buffalo  appears  to 
have  been  absent  from  all  the  region  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  creature  existed 
for  any  distance  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  There 
had  been  an  earlier  and  less  plentiful  species  of 
bison  in  this  country ;  but  he  appears  to  have  disap- 
peared many  thousands  of  years  ago,  perhaps  before 
the  coming  of  man  to  this  continent.  Our  well- 
known  species  probably  was  developed  in  some  region 
far  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  whence  it  grad- 
ually spread  to  the  eastward.  The  Mound- Builders 
apparently  did  not  know  the  creature.  We  deter- 
mine this  point  by  the  fact  that  we  do  not  find  bison 
bones  about  the  old  kitchen  fires,  and  we  fail  to 
find  any  picture  of  the  beast  in  the  abundant  delinea- 
tions   of    animals   made   by   these   ancient    people^ 


184  NATURE  AXD  MAN  IX  AMERICA 

They  figured  all  the  other  important  forms  of  land 
animals,  including  birds,  snakes,  and  also  many  of 
those  from  the  far-off  waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico ;  but  they  have  given  us  no  represen- 
tation of  this,  which  would  have  been  to  them  the 
king  of  beasts.  We  therefore  justly  conclude  that  it 
was  unknown  to  them. 

When  in  his  westward  movement  the  buffalo  came 
to  the  semi-civilized  inhabitants  of  the  Mississippi 
system  of  valleys,  he  brought  a  great  plenty  of  ani- 
mal food  to' the  people,  who  had  long  been  in  a  meas- 
ure destitute  of  such  resources,  for  they  had  no  other 
domesticated  animals  save  the  dog.  Not  yet  firmly 
fixed  in  the  agricultural  art,  these  tribes  appear, 
after  the  coming  of  the  buffalo,  to  have  lapsed  into 
the  pure  savagery  which  hunting  entails.  To  favor 
the  pasturage  of  these  wild  herds,  the  Indians  adopted 
the  habit  of  burning  the  prairies.  These  fires  spread 
to  the  forests  on  the  east,  killing  the  young  trees 
which  afforded  the  succession  of  wood,  gradually 
extending  the  pasturage  area  of  the  wild  herds  until 
the  larger  portions  of  the  western  plains  eastward  to 
central  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  probably  even  into  the 
Carolinas,  and  southward  to  the  Tennessee  River, 
had  been  stripped  of  their  original  forests,  making 
way  for  the  vast  throngs  of  these  creatures  which 
ranged  the  country  at  the  time  when  we  first  knew  it. 
With  the  rehabilitation  of  the  hunter's  habit,  and 
with  the  nomadic  conditions  which  this  habit  neces- 
sarily  brings   about,    came   more   frequent   contests 


NATUKE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  185 

between  tribes,  and  the   gradual   decadence  of  the 
slight  civilization  which  the  people  had  acquired. 

The  relatively  recent  advent  of  the  buffalo  into  the 
Mississippi  valley  is  well  indicated  by  the  facts  dis- 
closed in  a  section  of  the  remarkable  deposits  which 
have  been  accumulated  around  the  salt-springs  at 
Big  Bone  Lick  in  Boone  County,  Kentucky.  At  this 
locality  a  number  of  springs  whose  waters  are  saline 
and  therefore  tempting  to  the  larger  herbivora  emerge 
on  the  earth  in  the  level  bottom  of  a  small  valley. 
In  the  olden  days  these  waters  were  evidently  poured 
forth  into  a  swampy  field  of  some  acres  in  extent.  A 
section  through  the  deposit  shows  us  the  following 
order  of  events  in  the  later  geologic  days  of  this 
district.  During  and  perhaps  before  tlie  coming  of 
the  last  glacial  sheet  upon  the  northern  parts  of  this 
continent,  these  springs  were  greatly  resorted  to  by 
the  elephants  which  inhabited  this  district.  When 
in  1868  the  present  writer  made  extensive  excava- 
tions around  these  springs,  he  found  at  a  depth  of  ten 
feet  below  the  surface  and  thence  downward  for  an 
unknown  depth  many  remains  of  these  gigantic 
pachyderms,  the  skeletons  being  broken  to  pieces  by 
the  pressure  of  the  feet  of  the  successive  generations 
of  these  animals.  Above  that  level,  in  the  section 
which  probably  represents  the  time  when  the  margin 
of  the  great  glacier  lay  only  a  few  miles  to  the  north 
of  the  site,  lay  the  remains  of  a  musk  ox  allied  to 
the  living  form  of  the  Arctic  regions  and  of  the  cari- 
bou  or   American   reindeer.       These    remains    were 


186  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

mingled  with  those  of  the  elephant  and  mastodon. 
At  about  the  same  level  occur  the  bones  of  a  bison 
belonging  to  the  same  genus  as  our  so-called  Ameri- 
can buffalo,  but  specifically  quite  distinct  from  that 
form.  After  all  the  above-named  creatures  had 
passed  away,  near  the  very  top  of  the  section,  in 
positions  which  seem  to  indicate  an  exceedingly  re- 
cent arrival  in  the  district,  we  find  the  bones  of  our 
ordinary  bison.  The  conditions  in  which  their 
skeletons  are  found  are  such  as  show  that  they  could 
not  well  have  been  for  more  than  a  few  centuries  in 
this  part  of  the  continent  at  the  time  when  it  was 
first  visited  by  Europeans. 

Thus  the  deforested  condition  of  our  prairies,  which 
gives  a  very  peculiar  physiographic  condition  to  the 
central  basin  of  the  continent,  is  probably  to  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  interference  of  man.  It  is  an 
effect,  though  unintended,  of  the  savage's  action  in 
relation  to  an  important  wild  beast.  If  the  advent 
of  European  folk  in  the  Mississippi  valley  had  been 
delayed  for  another  five  centuries,  the  prairie  country 
would  doubtless  have  been  made  very  much  more 
extensive.  Thus  in  western  Kentucky  a  territory  of 
about  five  thousand  square  miles  in  area  had  recently 
been  brought  to  the  state  of  open  land  by  the  burning 
of  the  forests.  All  around  the  margin  of  this  area 
there  were  only  old  trees  scarred  by  the  successive 
fires,  there  being  no  young  of  their  species  to  take 
the  place  as  they  fell.  It  is  probable  that  with 
another  five  hundred  years  of  such  conditions  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  187 

prairie  region  would  have  extended  up  to  the  base  of 
our  Alleghanies,  and  in  time  all  the  great  Appala- 
chian woods,  at  least  as  far  as  the  plain-land  was  con- 
cerned, would  probably  have  vanished  in  the  same 
process. 

In  the  district  south  of  the  Tennessee  the  Indians 
long  maintained  agricultural  habits  in  a  measure  not 
common  with  their  northern  kindred.  Indeed,  when 
the  settlements  of  the  Creeks  and  the  allied  tribes 
about  the  Gulf  were  destroyed  by  the  advancing 
tide  of  European  life,  the  sedentary  condition  of  the 
population  had  not  been  destroyed  by  the  invasion 
of  the  buffalo. 

In  general,  north  of  the  great  lakes  and  the  St. 
Lawrence  the  climate  is  such  as  to  make  the  devel- 
opment of  people  beyond  the  stage  of  savagery  quite 
impossible,  for  the  reason  that  agriculture,  at  least 
such  as  a  primitive  people  could  invent,  is  not  possi- 
ble in  that  country.  We  therefore  find  in  the  con- 
siderable Indian  and  Eskimo  population  of  the  high 
north  of  our  continent  much  less  trace  of  advance 
than  in  the  southern  section.  We  may  say,  indeed, 
that  the  possibilities  of  culture  are  in  a  descending 
scale  from  the  subtropical  districts  of  Mexico  to  the 
northern  fields  of  the  continent;  the  measure  of 
advance  depending  on  the  ratio  between  the  propor- 
^_^tion  of  food-supply  derived  or  derivable  from  hunting 
/  and  from  tillage.  Still  further  we  note  on  this  con- 
/  tinent  a  feature  better  shown  in  the  Old  World,  —  that 
the  stronger  and  more  militant  people  develop  in  tol- 


188  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AIVIERICA. 

erably  northern  stations,  between  the  tropic  heat  and 
circumpolar  cold.  The  conquering  tribes  among  the 
Indians  were  those  which  were  nurtured  south  of  the 
great  lakes  and  north  of  the  Ohio  River.  In  that 
district  some  agriculture  was  possible  —  indeed,  it 
was  imperatively  demanded  in  any  considerable  ag- 
gregations of  people  —  in  order  to  meet  the  trials  of 
the  winter.  The  rigor  of  climate  tends  to  breed 
vigorous,  somewhat  forethoughtful  men ;  such  races 
as  the  Iroquois,  or  Six  Nations,  appear  to  have 
acquired  their  soldierly  qualities  in  these  northern 
climates,  as  the  militant  folk  of  Europe  were  bred 
in  moderately  cold  lands. 

In  a  general  way  it  is  true  that  the  North  Ameri- 
can aborigines,  through  the  lack  of  geographical 
isolation,  never  attained  the  state  when  the  physiog- 
raphy of  the  region  they  inhabited  would  do  the  most 
to  develop  the  original  tribal  groups  into  states. 
The  natural  divisions  of  the  continent  did  not  come 
to  have  much  importance  in  relation  to  man  until 
North  America  became  the  seat  of  European  settle- 
ments. We  shall  therefore,  without  further  consid- 
eration of  the  aboriginal  peoples,  give  our  attention 
to  the  history  of  European  immigrants  on  this 
continent. 

The  history  of  the  earlier  settlements  of  Europeans 
in  North  America  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  in  the  records  of  man.  The  discovery  and 
the  Europeanization  of  America  depended  in  the  first 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  189 

place  upon  the  ancient  commerce  of  Europe  with  the 
far  East.  This  trade,  which  began  in  very  ancient 
days,  had  attained  considerable  importance  before 
the  growth  of  the  Mahometan  religion.  The  devel- 
opment of  this  faith  in  the  eighth  century,  and  the 
consequent  combats  between  the  Christians  and 
the  followers  of  Mahomet,  made  the  intercourse  of 
Europe  with  the  Orient  soon  more  difficult  and  costly 
than  it  had  been  in  earlier  times.  The  commercial 
men  of  Europe  as  well  as  the  statesmen  were  anxious 
to  find  a  new  way  to  the  great,  though  somewhat 
fabulous  wealth  of  southern  and  western  Asia. 
Then  came  the  important  scientific  conclusion  famil- 
iar to  the  ancients,  but  new  to  modern  people,  that 
the  earth  was  a  sphere ;  and  from  it  naturally  arose 
the  project  of  attaining  to  the  Orient  by  sailing 
around  by  the  west,  so  escaping  the  barrier  which 
Mahometanism  interposed  to  the  path  of  commerce. 
Neither  of  these  conditions  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient to  push  the  explorers  across  the  Atlantic,  but 
for  the  great  advance  in  the  art  of  navigation  which 
the  Normans  had  brought  to  southern  Europe.  The 
classic  ships  of  the  Mediterranean,  or  their  imita- 
tions in  other  parts  of  Europe  save  Scandinavia,  were 
probably  all  flat-bottomed :  they  had  to  go  with  the 
wind.  The  Northmen  had  invented  the  keel,  which 
alone  makes  navigation  something  better  than  wait- 
ing for  the  chances  afforded  by  variable  winds. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  trade -winds,  even  a  Roman 
ship  could  have  sailed  to  America ;  Init  it  is  doubtful 


190  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

if  any  vessel  without  a  keel  could  have  compassed 
the  return  voyage  save  by  the  rare  opportunity  of 
continued  westerly  winds,  which  blow  only  in  the 
North  Atlantic.  Moreover,  in  Roman  times  water 
was  conveyed  with  difficulty.  The  vessels  used  for 
this  purpose  were  the  skins  of  animals,  or  earthen 
jars,  necessarily  frail  and  generally  of  small  size. 
The  invention  of  the  cask,  one  of  the  most  consider- 
able elements  in  the  establishment  of  the  economic 
conditions  on  which  civilization  rests,  came  in  rela- 
tively modern  times.  The  cask  as  well  as  the  keel 
was,  it  seems  to  me,  a  device  of  northern  Europe; 
and  the  two  together  did  more  to  make  long-dis- 
tance navigation  possible  than  any  other  inventions. 

After  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  a  rapid  increase 
of  population  in  Europe,  due  to  the  consolidation  of 
States  and  a  consequent  steadfaster  condition  of 
society.  "With  this  increase  in  numbers  the  com- 
mercial spirit  became  stronger.  The  conflicts  with 
Mahometanism  developed  a  measure  of  missionary 
ardor  which,  combined  with  the  commercial  motive, 
supplied  the  strong  incentive  which  pushed  European 
peoples  on  the  ways  of  western  discovery. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  first  of  these  move- 
ments, save  the  accidental  voyages  of  the  Scandina- 
vians to  the  northern  coasts,  came  from  the  Spanish 
peoples.  The  reconquest  of  Spain  to  Christianity 
had  served  to  develop  the  military  motives  of  that 
people.  A  part  of  the  conquering  population  of 
Spain  was  of  Gothic  blood,  and  still  retained  some- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  191 

thing  of  the  seafaring  impulse  of  the  Northmen; 
furthermore,  Spain  is  near  the  parallels  of  the  trade- 
winds.  As  soon  as  a  vessel  is  a  little  way  from  its 
shores,  it  feels  that  great  western-setting  breath 
which  will  carry  a  ship  straight  forward  to  the  An- 
tilles. If  Columbus  had  sailed  from  the  British 
Channel,  the  conditions  of  the  "  roaring  forties " 
would  probably  have  insured  the  failure  of  his  adven- 
turous voyage.  The  trade-winds  determined,  in  a 
way  that  was  most  fortunate  for  our  race,  the  fact 
that  the  Spaniards  came  to  the  tropical  districts  of 
America.  These  regions  they  possessed  before  the 
more  northern  peoples  of  Europe  began  to  have  an 
interest  in  the  western  empire.  When  the  French  and 
the  English  entered  into  the  scramble  for  the  new 
lands  of  the  west,  Spain  had  already  laid  its  strong 
hand  upon  about  all  the  countries  south  of  the  straits 
of  Florida  and  north  of  the  Equator.  The  English 
and  French  were  fended  from  the  tropical  parts  of 
America  by  the  pre-emption  of  those  lands  by  Spain, 
whose  claim  was  fortified  by  the  decisions  of  the 
Pope,  and  even  more  effectively  excluded  from  them 
by  the  currents  of  the  air  and  sea.  The  Gulf  Stream 
makes  a  strong  opposition  to  the  mariner  seeking  to 
find  his  way  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  cruising  down 
the  coast  of  the  continent.  To  the  slow-sailing 
ships  of  the  colonial  days,  vessels  which  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions  did  not  generally  make 
more  than  five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  this  stream  was 
a  considerable  barrier  to  the  southward  movement 


192      NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

along  the  shore  of  North  America.  The  only  easy 
way  to  the  lands  about  the  Caribbean  and  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  was  one  pretty  thoroughly  guarded  by  the 
Spaniards ;  hence  the  French  and  the  English  were 
practically  limited  to  the  country  north  of  Cape 
Florida.  Thus  we  see  the  fact  that  the  trade-winds 
and  their  current,  which  led  Columbus  to  America, 
helped  to  bar  the  French  and  the  English  from  the 
tropical  portions  of  that  country. 

We  must  now  note  that  the  French,  owing  to  their 
geographic  position,  shared  with  the  Spanish  in  the 
missionary  motive  which  was  so  large  an  element  in 
continental  Europe  at  the  time  of  American  discov 
ery.  The  French  at  first  and  mainly  sought  America, 
not  as  a  territory  in  which  to  plant  their  race,  but 
as  the  Spaniards  sought  it,  as  a  place  of  commercial 
enterprise  and  of  spiritual  domain.  It  is  sometimes 
the  fashion  of  Protestants  to  contemn  the  spiritual 
element  of  the  Latin  colonists  in  America,  and  to 
consider  that  the  missionary  portion  of  the  enterprise 
was  hypocritical,  and  that  the  commercial  and 
national  supremacy  was  the  only  end  sought.  His- 
tory as  well  as  a  fair  respect  for  human  motives 
opposes  this  interpretation.  We  must  regard  the 
missionary  element  of  these  expeditions  as  of  great 
value  in  directing  the  westward  movement  of  the 
Spanish  and  French  empires.  In  England,  owing  to 
circumstances  which  we  cannot  discuss,  the  Crusade 
motive  was  never  as  strong  as  on  the  Continent ;  the 
divisions  in  the  Church,  already  rife,  had  led  to  a 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  193 

loss  of  such  proselyting  spirit  as  may  once  have* 
existed.  In  this  period  England,  though  much  less 
peopled  than  at  the  present  time,  already  felt  the 
stress  of  over-population;  moreover,  the  much  re- 
gretted loss  of  her  continental  possessions  had  given 
the  people  a  desire  to  secure  new  lands.  The  com- 
mercial and  colonizing  impulses,  unaffected  hy  the 
spirit  of  religious  proselytism,  were  also  stronger 
than  on  the  Continent.  The  result  was  that  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  in  the  New  World  were  planted  with  a 
very  different  motive  from  those  of  France  and  Spain. 
They  consisted  of  people  who  came  to  stay,  to  breed 
upon  the  ground,  and  to  found  New  Englands  on  the 
foreign  shore.  Though  in  part  led  by  religious  con- 
victions, seeking  a  haven  for  peculiar  creeds,  they 
were  on  the  whole  commercially  minded,  —  true 
colonists  in  their  intent,  as  were  the  Greeks  in  their 
time,  or  their  ruder  imitators,  the  Northmen,  in  a 
later  age. 

The  conditions  which  determined  the  first  seats  of 
French  and  English  settlements  on  the  coast  of  North 
America  may  be  termed  accidental;  or,  in  other 
words,  we  cannot  perceive  that  physiographic  condi- 
tions in  any  distinct  way  affected  the  location  of  the 
colonies.  It  came  to  pass,  however,  that  the  French 
obtained  control  of  the  region  about  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  thence  they  extended  their  settle- 
ments up  that  wonderful  valley,  the  great  eastern 
gateway  of  the  continent.  At  the  same  time  the 
region  about  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  was  held 

13 


194  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

by  the  other  Latin  people,  the  Spaniards,  through  the 
fact  that  they  possessed  the  straits  which  led  to  the 
Caribbean,  and  the  strength  to  maintain  that  empire 
of  waters  against  intruders.  The  English  and  their 
kindred  folk,  the  Dutch,  found  their  way  to  the 
shore,  and  founded  settlements  from  the  Bay  of  Maine 
southward  to  and  beyond  Cape  Hatteras. 

It  is  difficult,  in  the  present  state  of  our  control 
over  this  continent,  to  conceive  the  importance 
which  lies  in  the  facts  concerning  the  original  sites 
of  the  French  and  English  settlements  on  the  Ameri- 
can shore.  We  now  traverse  this  land  in  every 
direction  with  perfect  ease;  as  for  the  mountain 
barriers  of  the  Appalachians,  with  their  great  forests 
and  unnavigable  streams,  they  now  demand  but  a  ton 
or  two  of  coal  to  carry  in  one  railway  train  a  greater 
population  than  was  ever  at  one  time  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century  imported  to  our 
coast.  In  those  old  days  the  Appalachian  system  of 
mountains  constituted  a  really  impassable  zone  ex- 
tending from  Georgia  to  the  far  north,  broken  only 
at  one  point  by  a  navigable  water-way  and  the  great 
valley  it  occupies,  the  St.  Lawrence  basin  and  river. 
It  is  true  that  the  Hudson  in  its  principal  tributary, 
the  Mohawk,  in  a  fashion  divides  the  Appalachian 
axis,  but  it  opens  no  pathway  into  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  The  Mohawk  is  unnavigable,  and  the  region 
about  its  head-waters  contained  perhaps  the  densest 
part  of  the  Indian  population  north  of  the  Ohio, 
composed  of  very  vigorous  and  combative  tribes. 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  195 

Althouoii  the  Appalachians  have  peaks  of  no  great 
height,  their  ranges  are  singularly  continuous,  and 
the  passes  formed  by  the  streams  in  the  numerous 
wall-like  ridges  afforded  in  early  days  no  natural 
ways  whatever.  From  Maine  to  Alabama  the  woods 
were  unbroken  and  impassable.  This  great  Appa- 
lachian forest  was  in  primitive  days  an  exceedingly 
dense  tangle.  At  a  few  points  the  aborigines  had 
worn  narrow  footways  through  it;  but  these  trails 
were  not  adapted  to  pack-animals,  the  original  means 
of  transportation  brought  by  the  Europeans,  but  for 
the  use  of  men  who  journeyed  on  foot,  and  could 
thus  climb  steeps  inaccessible  to  a  burdened  beast. 
To  add  to  the  difficulties  of  the  country,  a  large  part 
of  the  district  from  central  Pennsylvania  northward 
was  boulder-strewn,  affording  no  footing  for  horses. 
Even  in  the  present  state  of  New  England,  where  the 
superficial  layer  of  glacial  erratics  has  been  to  a 
great  extent  cleared  away,  it  is  easy  to  conceive  how 
impassable  the  surface  must  have  been  in  early  times. 
It  required  a  century  of  enterprising,  unrecorded  labor 
to  open  the  paths  across  the  stony  and  swampy  fields 
of  New  England  to  the  valley  of  the  Hudson.  The 
undergrowth  of  this  forest  country  is  far  more  dense 
than  that  which  is  commonly  found  in  European 
lands.  The  shrubby  plants,  and  the  species  of  smilax 
or  green  briar  and  other  creeping  vines,  make  the 
most  of  our  Ap]!^p.lachian  forests  very  nearly  impas- 
sable, even  at  the  present  day.  Only  once  during  the 
Civil  War  —  in  the  retreat  of  George  H.   Morgan's 


196  XATUllE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

army  in  1862,  from  Cumberland  Gap  to  the  Ohio  — 
did  any  considerable  body  of  troops  make  an  extended 
march  through  our  trackless  forests;  and  this  re- 
doubtable enterprise  was  accomplished  in  a  portion 
of  the  Alleghany  district  where  the  woods  are  far 
more  open  than  they  are  in  the  more  eastern  part  of 
the  country.  Although  this  march  extended  for 
only  two  hundred  miles,  and  was  partly  over  roads, 
it  wore  out  the  well-trained  army  which  had  part 
in  it. 

The  Appalachian  barrier  of  forest  and  mountain 
was  to  civilized  men  almost  as  impassable  as  the 
Alps.  It  had  a  width  of  about  three  hundred  miles ; 
it  was  long  before  its  geography  was  known,  and 
therefore  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  nearly  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  of  growth  had  to  take  place  in  the 
English  settlements  before  their  people  fairly  broke 
their  way  through  it  and  obtained  access  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi valley;  and  that  another  fifty  years  passed 
before  the  central  settlements  were  closely  united 
with  the  seaport  by  ways  which  trade  could  traverse. 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  French  to  secure  in  the 
St.  Lawrence  River  possession  of  the  only  practical 
access  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  fruitful  interior 
of  North  America.  Although  there  are  some  diffi- 
culties of  navigation  in  the  St.  Lawrence  system  of 
waters,  as  in  its  rapids  and  in  Niagara  Falls,  that 
channel  affords,  for  more  than  half  the  year,  by  far 
the  most  natural  way  into  the  heart  of  the  continent. 
Along  this  path  the  French  extended  their  settle- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  197 

ments  and  their  influence  over  the  aborigines  into 
the  Mississippi  valley,  before  the  English  colonists 
or  those  of  the  Hollanders  had  penetrated  beyond  the 
lowlands  of  the  Atlantic  shore;  and  in  a  military 
sense  they  took  the  English  settlements  in  the  flank 
and  rear. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
historian,  in  making  a  survey  of  the  conditions  ex- 
isting in  North  America,  would  have  most  likely 
declared  that  the  Latin  folk  had  vastly  the  advantage 
over  the  English  in  their  control  over  the  continent. 
On  the  south  the  Spanish  possessed  all  that  portion 
of  the  continent  which  was  blessed  with  what  is 
commonly  esteemed  a  fortunate  climate.  On  the 
north  and  west  the  French,  by  their  control  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi  valleys,  over  which 
they  claimed  and  in  a  fashion  exercised  dominion  up 
to  the  western  base  of  the  Appalachians,  had  appar- 
ently secured  a  hold  upon  all  the  fairest  fields  of  the 
country.  The  British  and  the  Hollanders,  on  the 
other  hand,  occupied  a  narrow  strip  of  shore-lands 
which  were  only  moderately  fertile.  Back  of  them 
lay  an  almost  impassable  barrier,  separating  them 
from  the  heart  of  the  continent.  On  the  north  and 
west  they  were  wrapped  around  by  the  French;  on 
the  south  they  were  hemmed  in  by  the  Spanish 
possessions. 

A  closer  view  would  have  shown  the  investigator 
that  there  were  certain  conditions  affecting  these 
diverse  peoples  which  were  destined  in  the  end  to 


198  NATURE  AKD  MAN  IN  AMERICA/  ^ 

give  dominance  to  the  English  folk.  ^IiTthe  first 
place  the  British  settlements  of  the  Atlantic,  coast 
were  tolerably  ready  of  access  at  all  times.. ()f  the 
year  to  the  Old  World.  It  was  only  about  fi\e  weeks' 
voyage  from  Great  Britain  to  any  part  of  the  coast, 
while  it  was  a  six  months'  journey  from  France  to 
the  outposts  of  the  French  settlements  along  the 
upper  great  lakes  or  in  the  Mississippi  valley. 
Moreover,  the  northern  way,  that  by  the  St.  Law- 
rence, was  closed  for  nearly  half  of  the  year,  while 
the  Mississippi,  even  after  its  channel  was  well 
known,  was  a  very  difficult  path  for  ascending  navi- 
gation until  the  invention  of  steamboats.  The 
French  settlements  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
were  ill  placed  for  successful  agriculture;  their 
crops  were  scanty,  and  won  with  much  labor.  As 
before  remarked,  the  continental  peoples  never 
seriously  intended  to  transfer  a  large  body  of  their 
population  to  the  New  World,  making  there  the  ho- 
mogeneous equivalent  of  the  European  State.  Their 
scheme  was  rather  of  a  missionary  nature ;  they  pro- 
posed to  incorporate  the  native  people  into  the  State 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Roman  colonists.  This  idea 
of  obtaining  control  over  the  native  population  ap- 
pears to  have  had  some  small  share  in  the  plans  of 
the  earlier  English  settlers.  The  scheme  was,  how- 
ever, quickly  abandoned.  The  settlers  soon  came  to 
the  plan  of  exterminating  rather  than  domesticating 
the  savages.  The  results  were  that  the  Latin  settle- 
ments became  in  general  the  seats  of  a  mongrel  race, 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.       199 

neither  savage  nor  civilized,  while  the  English  and 
Dutch  settlements  were  developed  as  true  offshoots 
of  the  parent  folk. 

There  was  a  certain  advantage  arising  from  the 
hemming  in  of  the  British  colonies  in  North  America 
by  the  Appalachian  boundary.  In  place  of  the  de- 
tached settlements  which  characterized  the  Spanish, 
and  more  particularly  the  French  plantations,  the 
British  colonial  establishments  were  by  their  ge- 
ographical conditions  compelled  to  develop  in  a  more 
connected  way.  It  was  possible  in  1700  to  ride 
from  Portland,  Maine,  to  southern  Virginia,  sleeping 
each  night  in  some  considerable  village.  If  our  an- 
cestors on  the  continent  had  secured  a  ready  access  to 
the  interior,  it  is  likely  that  a  hundred  years  would 
have  gone  by  before  the  colonies  became  sufficiently 
dense  in  population  to  permit  the  interactive  life 
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  American  Revolution. 

A  very  important  effect  arising  from  the  limitation 
of  the  British  colonies  near  the  coast  region  of  the 
Atlantic  is  found  in  the  rapid  development  of  mari- 
time life  during  the  two  centuries  before  these  colo- 
nies obtained  access  to  the  interior  of  the  continent. 
The  best  lands  of  these  narrow  fields  were  rapidly 
possessed  by  the  people.  After  this  first  stage  in  the 
agricultural  development  of  the  district  had  passed, 
the  fields  of  the  coimtry  afforded  but  scanty  room  for 
the  enterprise  of  its  population.  For  the  same  reason 
that  the  Scandinavians  and  the  British  became  sea- 
farers, the  portion  of  the  Bi-itish  colonies  where  the 


200  NATIVE  AKD  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

shore  afforded  good  harbors  turned  toward  maritime 
life,  and  for  a  hundred  years  or  more  enterprising- 
men  ploughed  all  the  oceans  with  their  keels. 

In  the  present  century  we  see  the  effect  arising 
from  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  valley  to  our 
Atlantic  coast  peoples,  in  the  gradual  decadence  of 
our  shipping  interests.  The  vigorous  youth  who  in 
the  last  century  would  have  resorted  to  the  sea  now 
betakes  himself  to  the  prairies,  and  finds  there  the 
opportunity  of  winning  his  way  to  fortune  which  his 
ancestors  were  compelled  to  seek  along  foreign 
shores.  Although  there  have  been  many  influences 
at  work  in  the  diversion  of  our  people  from  maritime 
life,  it  seems  on  the  whole  that  the  most  important 
cause  is  to  be  found  in  the  way  opened  to  enterpris- 
ing people  through  the  ready  access  Avhich  this  cen- 
tury has  given  to  the  central  fields  of  the  continent. 
After  that  great  domain  is  possessed,  we  may  fairly 
expect  that  the  Atlantic  coast  population  will  again 
turn  to  maritime  life. 

Although  the  Atlantic  coast  presents  no  very  great 
diversity  in  its  physical  conditions,  its  range  in 
climate  is  sufficient  to  afford  a  considerable  variety 
in  agricultural  products,  and  the  geographic  divi- 
sions serve  in  a  measure  to  intensify  certain  regional 
differences  of  character  in  such  a  measure  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  several  British  colonies  on  this 
coast  became  tolerably  distinct  in  their  character. 
This  process  was  aided  by  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
earlr^  settlements  were  composed  of  somewhat  di- 


NATUEE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  201 

verse  peoples,  each  of  the  colonies  coming  to  the 
possession  of  individual  motives  either  through  pe- 
culiarities of  religious  faith,  peculiar  social  habits, 
or  other  original  varieties  in  the  parent  stock.  The 
long-continued  absence  of  any  political  association 
between  the  separate  colonies  kept  them  in  a  good 
measure  apart,  and  thus  served  to  foster  the  develop- 
ment of  diverse  character  in  different  sections;  so 
that  upon  this  shore  there  came  about  a  state  of 
society  in  which  the  New  Englander,  the  Hollander 
of  New  York,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
Catholics  of  Maryland,  and  the  churchmen  of  Vir- 
ginia were  somewhat  different  from  one  another. 

These  characteristic  differences  between  the  several 
peoples  of  the  Atlantic  coast  were  due  in  part  to  phy- 
siographic circumstances  of  their  environment.  The 
development  of*  the  American  colonies,  their  rapid 
growth  in  the  century  preceding  the  American  Revo- 
lution, depended  in  a  large  measure  on  a  botanical 
accident,  —  on  the  introduction  of  tobacco  into  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  No  contribution  from  newly 
discovered  lands  has  ever  been  so  welcomed  as  this 
so-called  noxious  weed.  No  new  faith  has  ever  trav- 
elled so  fast  and  far  among  men  as  the  habit  of 
smoking.  In  scarce  a  century  from  the  first  intro- 
duction of  the  plant  in  Europe,  its  use  had  spread  to 
nearly  half  the  peoples  of  the  Old  World.  The  east- 
ern coast  of  America  from  the  Hudson  southward  to 
South  Carolina,  is  peculiarly  well  suited  for  the 
growth  of  the  tobacco  plant ;  and  the  rapid  extension 


202  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  British  colonies  in  America,  which  brought 
their  population  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  to  a 
point  where  thev  numbered  about  one-sixth  part  of 
the  English  people,  was  largely  due  to  the  commerce 
which  rested  upon  the  use  of  this  plant.  It  was  a 
source  of  a  vast  income  in  the  tobacco-growing 
States,  and  in  a  secondary  way  it  served  greatly  to 
promote  the  growth  of  New  England  and  New  York. 
It  is  true  it  in  good  part  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
American  slave-trade,  on  which  the  culture  of  cotton 
built  a  vast  structure ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  served 
to  promote  the  growth  of  our  race  on  this  continent 
in  a  very  important  way,  for  it  provided  the  means 
for  an  extended  trade  with  the  Old  World,  and  thus 
gave  a  degree  of  wealth  to  the  New. 

There  is  one  aspect  of  the  African  slave-trade 
which  has  been  generally  neglected  by  persons  who 
have  written  on  that  important  feature  in  the  history 
of  this  country.  This  is  the  way  in  which  it  operated 
upon  the  early  development  of  our  American  colonies. 
The  first  settlement  on  the  shore  of  North  America 
naturally  consisted  in  the  main  of  vigorous,  enter- 
prising, and  intelligent  people  from  the  several 
states  of  the  Old  World.  Although  the  present  state 
of  the  immigration  movement  brings  to  our  shores 
mainly  the  peasant  class  of  the  Old  World,  these 
laboring  people  were  relatively  wanting  among  the 
early  colonists.  The  result  was  that  the  early  socie- 
ties of  our  shores  lacked  the  substratum  of  popula- 
tion on  which  the  development  of  a  State  so  intimately 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  203 

depends.  The  colonies  had  more  than  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  intellectual  capacity,  but  less  than  their  share 
of  rude  human  strength.  It  was  at  first  supposed 
possible  for  these  new  States  to  acquire  a  laboring 
class  by  enslaving  the  Indians ;  but  all  these  efforts 
at  subjugating  the  American  savage  have  been  as 
unsuccessful  as  the  similar  efforts  to  domesticate 
the  buffalo.  Both  of  these  American  creatures  have 
a  fair  measure  of  physical  vigor,  but  they  are  alike 
untamable. 

The  Spanish,  who  owing  to  their  control  of  the 
tropical  portion  of  the  Atlantic,  alone  had  access  in 
the  early  colonial  period  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  were 
the  first  to  begin  the  importation  of  negroes  into  this 
continent;  but  the  trade  soon  extended,  so  that  they 
were  brought  into  all  the  European  colonies.  Unlike 
the  Indian,  the  negro  proved  to  be  a  singularly  use- 
ful laborer.  No  other  savage  in  the  world  has  ever 
proved  so  readily  domesticable  in  a  civilized  coun- 
.try.  Patient,  laborious,  and  enduring,  endowed 
with  a  rare  capacity  for  imitating  the  ways  of  his 
master,  he  became  in  the  hands  of  the  colonists  a 
most  invaluable  servant.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  this 
singular  man,  that,  though  given  in  his  own  land  to 
very  brutal  ways,  he  readily  adapts  a  large  part  of 
the  motives  of  civilization.  In  the  course  of  two  or 
three  generations  the  descendants  of  these  wild  men 
became  in  the  most  essential  features  of  their  nature 
substantially  akin  to  the  peasant  class  of  our  own 
peoples.     The  most  singular  and  exceptional   of  all 


204  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  characteristics  of  the  negro  which  fitted  him  for 
the  use  of  the  American  colonists  consisted  in  the 
remarkable  readiness  with  which  he  became  acclima- 
tized in  relatively  high  latitudes.  While  all  other 
tropical  peoples  appear  to  suffer  greatly  from  a 
change  of  climate,  the  negro  endures  the  relatively 
great  cold  in  the  winter  season  of  North  America,  at 
least  as  far  north  as  the  Potomac,  about  as  well  as 
the  white  man,  who  is  by  origin  and  nurture  a  crea- 
ture of  the  high  north. 

The  effect  arising  from  the  introduction  of  negro 
slaves  into  the  Atlantic  coast  colonies  of  North 
America  was  clearly  very  great  and  for  a  time  ad- 
vantageous. It  gave  to  the  enterprising  people  of 
this  country  a  means  whereby  they  could,  at  a  rela- 
tively small  cost,  secure  all  the  labor  which  they 
cared  to  control.  This  labor  was  particularly  ser- 
viceable in  the  extension  first  of  tobacco  culture,  and 
subsequently  in  that  of  cotton.  As  the  commercial 
success  of  the  English  colonies  in  the  first  two  cen- 
turies of  their  history  depended  mainly  on  the  crop 
won  from  these  plants,  we  must  regard  the  geographic 
conditions  which  led  to  the  introduction  of  negro 
slaves  as  of  very  great  importance  in  the  history  of 
this  land.  But  for  the  existence  of  a  body  of  sav- 
ages in  Africa,  folk  uniquely  fitted  for  the  needs  of 
this  country ;  but  for  the  fact  that  the  African  shores 
were  only  separated  from  those  of  eastern  North 
America  by  easily  navigated  seas,  —  the  commercial 
advance  of  the  American  colonies  would  have  been 
relatively  very  slow. 


NATURE   AND   x\IAX  IN  AMERICA.  205 

Although  the  American  people  in  the  end  paid 
dearl}'  for  the  good  which  they  won  through  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  on  this  continent,  the  immediate 
effect  of  the  institution  was  undoubtedly  very  bene- 
ficial. It  made  it  more  possible  to  have  in  this  new 
and  rude  land  a  cultivated  class.  It  led  to  the  rapid 
accumulation  of  wealth,  and  in  this  way  brought  the 
people  the  sooner  into  a  condition  in  which  they 
could  control  their  own  destiny. 

The  effect  of  the  Appalachian  axis  on  the  develop- 
ment of  the  English  people  might  also  be  traced  in 
the  protection  which  it  afforded  against  the  more 
powerful  bodies  of  the  aborigines.  The  tribes  which 
originally  dwelt  between  the  sea  and  the  mountains 
were  relatively  weak ;  although  they  held  some  inter- 
course with  their  western  kinsmen,  they  were  so  far 
separated  from  them  that  at  no  time  did  the  eastern 
peoples,  save  in  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  have  to 
meet  any  considerable  body  of  warriors  who  were 
bred  in  the  inland  parts  of  the  continent.  Hence 
the  struggles  of  the  earlier  settlers  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  with  the  savages  was  a  relatively  unimportant 
matter ;  though  it  more  than  once  brought  the  feeble 
colonies  into  great  jeopardy.  But  for  the  Appala- 
chian barrier,  the  English,  owing  to  their  rude  ways 
of  contact  with  the  savages,  would  necessarily  have 
met  the  hostility  of  a  vastly  greater  body  of  warriors. 
A  Pontiac  or  a  Prophet  would  have  effected  what  the 
feebler  King  Philip  vainly  essayed.  It  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  the  Puritans  of  New  England  or  am' 


206  NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

other  of  the  settlements,  except  perhaps  the  Quakers, 
could  have  held  their  own  against  the  aboriginal  folk 
of  this  country  but  for  the  protection  this  barrier 
afforded. 

It  is  in  good  part  to  the  commercial  growth  of  the 
British  colonies  in  America  that  we  owe  the  speedy 
overthrow  of  the  French  empire,  which  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century  seemed  likely  to 
control  North  America.  The  New  England  settle- 
ments developed  rapidly,  and  were  pushed  up  to- 
ward the  north;  and  frQm  them  as  a  base  it  was 
easy  to  capture  the  strongholds  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
valley,  and  thus  make  the  great  scheme  of  France 
impossible. 

The  settlement  of  the  Mississippi  valley  by  the  Eng- 
lish people  was  first  effectively  accomplished  through 
Virginia  and  its  western  extension  beyond  the  moun- 
tains in  the  then  district  of  Kentucky.  It  is  at  this 
part  of  the  Appalachian  system  that  we  find  tlie  most 
practicable  path  for  a  wagon-road  from  the  coast  to 
the  navigable  waters  of  the  Ohio.  Following  up  the 
great  valley  of  Virginia,  that  known  as  the  Shenan- 
doah, thence  to  the  broad  open  basin  of  the  upper 
Tennessee,  thence  over  the  low  gap  in  the  Cumber- 
land Mountain  to  the  westernmost  of  the  AUeghanies, 
it  was  easy  to  take  pack  animals,  and  with  a  moder- 
ate amount  of  labor  to  make  a  wagon-road  from 
the  Virginia  settlements  to  the  most  fertile  portion 
of  the  Mississippi  district.  The  process  was  easy, 
because  this  country  is  south  of  the  glacial  belt,  and 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  207 

thereby  not  encumbered  with  boulders,  and  also  be- 
cause a  succession  of  breaks  in  the  mountains  makes 
a  natural  way,  the  sole  moderately  easy  passage  from 
the  Virginia  district  to  the  centre  of  the  continent. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  the  first  settlement  in  the 
Mississippi  valley,  the  settlement  which  gave  char- 
acter to  a  large  part  of  that  basin,  came  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  took  with  it  the  institution  of  slavery  into 
the  Mississippi  valley,  establishing  the  black  line 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  If  the  conditions  had 
been  slightly  different ;  if  the  way  from  the  Hudson 
or  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  west  had  been  as  easy  to 
traverse  as  that  from  Virginia  to  the  Ohio  valley, 
—  the  fertile  fields  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  might 
Avell  have  been  occupied  by  people  from  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York ;  in  which  case  the  boundaries 
of  the  slave-holding  States  would  probably  have  been 
drawn  much  farther  south,  if  indeed  the  institution 
had  ever  obtained  a  firm  foothold  in  the  central  por- 
tion of  the  Mississippi  valley. 


CHAPTER   YII. 

Effect  of  the  Appalachian  Mountain  System  on  the  Distribution  of  Slavery 
—  Influence  of  the  Prairies  ;  Rapidity  and  Ease  with  which  they  are  won 
to  Tillage.  —  Effect  of  Invention  of  Agriculture.  —  Original  Division  of 
North  America. — Atlantic  Coast  ;  its  Agricultural  Capacity.  — Missis- 
sippi Valley  and  Pacific  Arable  Land.  —  Effect  of  Modern  Economies  in 
producing  local  Peculiarities  of  Societj'.  —  Lack  of  Geographic  Variety  in- 
Xorth  America.  —  Three  Marine  Regions  of  this  Continent. — Details 
of  the  New  England  District;  Surface  Tillable  Soils;  Variety  of  Occupa- 
tions. —  New  York  District ;  Comparison  of  its  Resources  with  those  of 
New  England.  —  Virginia  District.  —  Absence  of  Glacial  Erosion ;  Influ- 
ence of  Blue  Ridge  ;  Character  of  Plain  Country;  Condition  of  Popula- 
tion. —  Effect  of  Diverse  Climates  on  the  Negroes.  — Florida  Peninsula; 
its  Soils;  Shore-Line  Fisheries;  probable  Future  of  the  District.  —  Mexi- 
can Gulf  Group  of  States ;  Region  of  the  Lowlands ;  Climate ;  Mineral 
Resources;  probable  Increase  of  Negro  Population. —  Ohio  Group  of 
States;  Climate;  Soil;  Contrasts  in  Fertility;  Effect  of  these  Contrasts- 
on  tlie  People;  Influence  on  the  Civil  War.  —  District  of  the  Great 
Lakes  ;  Peculiarities  of  the  Region ;  Climate ;  Variety  of  Mineral 
Resources. 

The  effect  of  the  Appalachian  Mountain  system 
upon  the  distribution  of  slavery,  and  consequently  on 
the  political  and  social  history  of  this  country,  was 
of  great  importance.  Slavery,  as  is  well  known,  de- 
pended for  its  extension  on  two  important  crops,  both 
of  which  demanded  a  large  amount  of  cheap  labor, 
and  afforded  articles  which  commerce  greatly  de- 
mands. The  institution  rested  on  the  industries  of 
tobacco  and  cotton  growing.  Only  where  one  of 
these  crops  could  be  profitably  tilled  did  the  institu- 
tion ever  firmly  establish  itself.     A  glance  at  the 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  209 

map  will  show  that  the  Appalachian  system  of  moun- 
tains widens  as  we  go  southward  from  Pennsylvania, 
until  it  occupies  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  Southern 
States,  extending  southward  so  as  to  include  half  of 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  a  considerable  part  of 
western  South  Carolina,  much  of  Georgia,  Tennessee, 
and  Kentucky,  and  a  part  of  Alabama.  In  this  sec- 
tion the  character  of  the  soil  and  form  of  the  surface, 
and  the  nature  of  the  climate,  make  the  land  unsuited 
for  the  extended  culture  of  either  tobacco  or  cotton. 
The  result  was  that  slavery  never  firmly  established 
itself  as  an  economic  institution  in  any  part  of  this 
vast  territory.  Here  and  there  in  the  more  fertile 
valleys  a  few  slaves  were  employed;  but  there  are 
counties  in  this  area  where  a  slave  was  never  held, 
and  where  to  this  day  a  negro  is  so  great  a  curiosity 
that  people  will  journey  miles  to  behold  him.  The 
natural  result  of  this  distribution  in  the  negro  popu- 
lation was  that  the  mountain  districts  of  the  South 
were  separated  in  their  political  motives  from  the 
plain  country.  When  the  rebellion  occurred  the 
Appalachian  country  was  a  region  where  disaffection 
toward  the  Confederacy  prevailed ;  to  a  great  extent 
the  men  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  North,  or  at  least 
gave  their  S3aiipathies  to  the  Federal  cause.  The 
peoples  of  eastern  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  and  west- 
ern Virginia  —  and  generally  those  of  western  North 
Carolina  as  well  —  recruited  the  ranks  of  the  Federal 
army.  Some  of  the  counties  of  eastern  Kentucky 
sent   more    troops    to    the   Union    forces    than    the 

u 


210  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

voters  who  ever  appeared  at  an  election  in  those 
districts. 

Owing  to  these  conditions,  the  Appalachian  upland 
region  divided  the  South  in  a  political  and  geographi- 
cal way,  and  served  greatly  to  enfeeble  the  resistance 
which  it  opposed  to  the  Federal  arms.  About  one 
fourth  of  the  population  of  the  slave-holding  States 
lay  in  this  upland  country.  Not  only  did  this  dis- 
trict afford  over  a  hundred  thousand  soldiers  to  the 
Federal  army,  but  the  prevailing  sympathies  of  the 
population  were  with  our  troops  in  every  stage  of 
their  work.  It  is  to  this  non-slave-holding  element 
of  the  Appalachian  districts  that  we  owe  the  adhesion 
of  Kentucky  to  the  Federal  cause,  and  the  partial 
co-operation  of  half  of  the  Old  Dominion,  now  known 
as  West  Virginia.  But  for  the  existence  of  this  ex- 
tensive territory  inaccessible  to  slavery,  and  the  con- 
sequent weakening  of  the  South,  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
Federal  arms  would  have  been  able  to  prevail  in 
that  momentous  contest. 

It  would  be  possible  to  extend  these  considerations 
concerning  the  influence  of  geographic  features  on 
the  development  of  European  settlements  and  the 
history  of  our  peoples  on  this  continent.  Analysis 
would  show  that  almost  every  feature,  every  river 
and  plain,  had  its  effect  in  controlling  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  population  in  its  westward  march.  It 
would  also  be  easy  to  show  that  the  climatal  charac- 
teristics have  vastly  affected  the  political  conditions 
through  the  character  of  the  crops  which  are  tilled. 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  211 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  Western  prairies,  which  ap- 
parently owe  their  origin,  as  before  remarked,  to  the 
Indian's  habit  of  burning  the  plains  to  favor  the 
spread  of  the  buffalo,  greatly  affected  the  distribution 
and  the  prosperity  of  our  population.  The  forests 
being  removed  from  the  prairie  countries,  they  were 
ready  for  the  plough,  without  the  arduous  labor  re- 
quired in  the  districts  previously  occupied  by  our 
race  to  clear  away  the  timber.  Possibly  owing  to 
their  long  deforested  condition,  the  soil  greatly 
abounded  in  the  elements  fitted  for  the  production 
of  corn  crops.  The  climate  excluded  the  profitable 
culture  of  cotton  and  tobacco,  —  the  staples  on  which 
negro  slavery  rested.  The  result  was  the  rapid  eco- 
nomic development  of  that  region  through  the  export 
of  grain,  and  the  consecration  of  the  country  to  the 
interests  of  free  labor.  History  shows  us  that  it  was 
only  narrowly  that  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Indiana 
escaped  the  institution  of  slave-owning  within  their 
territories.  If  the  isothermals  had  been  drawn  one 
or  two  hundred  miles  farther  north,  so  that  the 
southern  crops  could  have  prospered  in  these  States, 
the  evil  of  slavery  might  well  have  been  fastened  so 
firmly  that  it  could  not  have  been  uprooted  from  our 
country. 

Manifold  and  interesting  as  are  these  considera- 
tions, we  must  turn  from  them  for  a  glance  at  cer- 
tain other  features  dependent  on  the  structure  of  the 
continent  which  have  had  a  profound  influence  on 
the  development  of  our  American  population,  and  are 


212  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

to  have  yet  other  important  effects  in  the  time  to 
come,  —  those  which  arise  from  the  distribution  of 
the  soil  and  the  deeper-lying  mineral  resources  of 
the  national  area. 

In  his  savage  state  man's  dependence  on  the  under 
earth,  or  even  upon  the  soil,  is  very  slight.  It  is 
true  that  in  a  fertile  country  the  game  is  commonly 
somewhat  more  abundant  than  in  a  region  of  scanty 
soil,  but  differences  in  this  regard  do  not  greatly  or 
immediately  affect  the  people.  With  the  invention 
of  agriculture  dependence  on  the  soil  begins;  with 
the  need  of  tools  a  slight  relation  with  the  metallic 
resources  of  the  under  earth  is  instituted.  With 
each  step  in  the  further  development  of  the  arts, 
man's  interest  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  increases. 
At  first  the  non-precious  metals  —  iron,  copper,  lead, 
and  zinc  —  are  sufficient  for  his  needs ;  but  in  ever- 
increasing  ratio  with  the  development  of  civilization 
this  dependence  on  the  under  earth  is  augmented. 
The  greater  portion  of  these  geologic  materials  are 
either  prepared  for  the  use  of  man,  or  brought  nearer 
to  the  earth's  surface  by  the  process  involved  in 
mountain-building.  The  development  of  the  Appala- 
chian axis,  as  well  as  the  similar  processes  which  led 
to  the  formation  of  the  Cordilleras,  has  shaped  and 
revealed  in  this  continent  an  ample  store  of  mineral 
materials  suited  to  the  needs  of  man,  and  has  placed 
these  stores  in  remarkably  advantageous  positions 
in  relation  to  the  regions  suited  for  the  purposes  of 
agriculture. 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN   AMERICA.  213 

In  general  the  continent  of  North  America  is 
divided  into  three  regions  of  arable  land  and  three 
great  mineral  districts.  Along  the  Atlantic  coast 
and  east  of  the  Appalachians  there  is  the  tolerably 
fertile  country  of  the  Atlantic  slope,  extending  from 
Florida  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  agricultural  capac- 
ity of  this  district  compares  favorably  with  any  equal 
section  in  the  world.  In  the  Mississippi  valley  we 
have,  considering  the  circumstances  of  the  soil  and 
climate,  the  largest  and  most  fertile  area  —  the  area 
best  suited  to  maintain  a  great  body  of  our  English 
race  —  which  the  world  affords.  On  the  Pacific  slope 
we  find  a  third  arable  field,  containing  less  area  than 
the  Atlantic  territory,  but  with  great  agricultural  pos- 
sibilities. Dividing  these  three  fields,  or  facing  them 
on  the  north,  we  have  the  mineral  districts ;  on  the 
east  the  Appalachian  country,  abounding  in  coal  and 
iron  and  considerable  quantities  of  other  important 
metalliferous  or  mineral  deposits.  In  the  Cordil- 
leran  districts  we  have,  so  far  as  known,  the  most 
plentiful  deposit  of  the  more  important  metals,  ex- 
cept of  tin,  which  the  world  affords  within  equal 
area.  On  the  north,  in  the  Laurentian  field  lies  a 
third  mineral  area  extraordinarily  rich  in  iron,  phos- 
phates, copper,  and  other  valuable  earth  materials. 
In  the  great  valley  between  the  Cordilleras  and  the 
Appalachians,  and  to  a  certain  extent  on  either 
shore-land,  there  are  extensive  beds  of  coal  and 
important  deposits  of  the  fluid  fuel  petroleum,  as 
well  as  of  natural  gas.     This  distribution  of  agricul- 


214  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  A^IERICA. 

tiiral  and  mineral  resources  of  this  country  is  singu- 
larly favorable  for  the  conjoint  development  of  tillage 
and  of  mining,  and  for  a  vast  interstate  and  foreign 
commerce,  of  which  we,  in  our  day,  see  but  the 
beginning. 

Before  we  proceed  to  consider  the  details  of  this 
natural  order  in  the  distribution  of  the  earth  re- 
sources of  North  America,  we  must  turn  aside  for  a 
moment  to  note  the  effect  of  modern  economies  in 
producing  local  peculiarities  in  human  life. 

In  the  earlier  states  of  man  the  nurture  places  of 
the  races  depended  for  their  effects  on  the  presence 
of  strong  geographic  barriers  —  seas  or  mountains  — 
which  might  fend  the  people  from  the  interference  of 
their  neighbors,  and  thereby  enable  them  to  undergo 
the  nurturing  process  which  led  to  racial  or  national 
peculiarities.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  effect  of 
commerce  is  to  destroy  these  boundaries.  The  Alps, 
once  a  formidable  barrier,  are  now  pierced  by  tun- 
nels, and  are  as  easy  of  passage  as  the  plain-lands  to 
the  north  and  south.  A  season's  earnings  will  now 
carry  a  man  to  the  farthest  civilized  countries.  But 
while  commerce  and  the  industries  on  which  it  de- 
pends have  served  to  break  down  the  natural  barriers 
between  peoples,  they  have  served  also,  in  a  singular 
way,  to  create  other  limitations  of  habit  and  action 
which  are  likely  to  have  even  greater  influence  in  the 
cradling  of  people  than  the  old  geographic  bounds.  It 
is  evident  to  any  one  who  has  studied  the  varying 
effects  of  occupations,  that  the  herdsman,  the  soil- 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  216 

tiller,  the  manufacturer,  the  miner,  pursue  emplo}^- 
ments  so  different  one  from  another,  that  men  who 
follow  them  become  in  hand  and  mind  specialized 
and  unlike  those  of  other  occupations. 

A  German  phrase  has  it  that  a  man  is  what  he 
eats.  We  may  better  say  that  a  man  is  what  he 
does ;  and  that  persistent  doing  in  one  line  of  deeds 
for  a  few  generations  will  serve  to  give  character  to 
a  population  in  much  the  same  manner  as  a  thousand 
years  of  isolation  in  a  peninsula  or  an  Alpine  valley. 
Within  the  limits  of  either  of  the  great  classes  of 
occupations  noted  above,  as  well  as  many  others  to 
Avhich  we  cannot  conveniently  refer,  we  find  a  wide 
range  of  diversities  dependent  on  the  peculiarities 
of  the  employment.  Thus  the  population  engaged 
in  the  iron  furnaces  or  rolling-mills  differs  widely  in 
character  from  the  folk  employed  in  weaving  and 
spinning  fibres.  The  watchmaker  and  the  shoe- 
maker are  both,  in  a  sense,  manufacturers;  but  the 
mental  training  which  the  two  receive,  and  the  con- 
sequent habits  of  life,  both  moral  and  physical,  differ 
in  a  very  wide  way.  The  orange-gardener  of  Florida 
and  the  wheat-farmer  of  Nebraska  pursue  employ- 
ments which  differ  entirely  in  their  nature :  the  one 
labors  throughout  the  year  with  his  tasks,  the  other 
is  subjected  to  the  peculiar  influences  which  come 
from  seasonal  activities.  The  wheat-field  of  the  Far 
West  calls  for  action  in  but  four  months  of  the  year ; 
for  the  rest  the  workman  is  but  a  drone,  unless  he 
turns   his  attention   to   other   tasks   than  his  crops 


216  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

afford.  Indeed,  the  variety  of  character  which  civil- 
ized occupations  give  to  a  population  is  much  greater 
than  that  which  in  the  same  time  could  be  instituted 
by  any  purely  natural  circumstances. 

Although  North  America  is  almost  destitute  of 
the  geographic  divisions  which  in  the  earlier  condi- 
tions of  man  served  to  diversify  the  character  of 
peoples,  the  diversities  of  occupation  are  easily  and 
necessarily  instituted  in  the  great  American  mix- 
ture of  folk.  Varieties  of  men  as  characteristic  and 
as  important  in  the  history  of  our  people  as  those 
which  Nature  has  produced  in  the  folk  of  the  Old 
World,  divisions  resting  upon  modes  of  activity  bred 
in  men  by  occupations  and  by  habits  which  occupa- 
tions engender,  will  at  once  unite  and  diversify  the 
people  of  this  country,  linking  particular  districts  in 
one  interest  and  way  of  thought  and  action,  and 
separating  those  districts  on  the  basis  of  industry 
from  the  folk  who  pursue  diverse  methods  of  life. 

I  now  propose  to  make  a  general  review  of  that 
part  of  this  continent  which  is  occupied  by  English- 
speaking  folk,  with  the  hope  that  we  may  thus  obtain 
a  basis  on  which  to  foretell,  in  a  general  way,  the 
divisions  of  character  in  our  people  which  are  likely 
to  arise  from  the  varieties  of  their  tasks. 

We  have  already  noted  the  fact  that  the  continent 
of  North  America  is  divided  into  three  great  min- 
eral and  three  great  agricultural  districts.  We  may 
profitably  add  to  the  consideration  the  fact  that  there 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  217 

are  three  regions  of  a  maritime  sort  where  the  people 
have  experienced  the  important  effects  of  close  con- 
tact with  the  sea.  These  maritime  districts  consist 
of  the  North  Atlantic  shore,  from  Cape  Hatteras  to 
Labrador ;  the  Pacific  coast,  from  Alaska  to  the  Gulf 
of  California,  both  regions  abounding  in  good  har- 
bors; and  the  third,  the  southern  coast,  from  Hat- 
teras around  Florida  to  Mexico,  which  is  not  well 
provided  with  ports,  and  where  the  maritime  condi- 
tions are  less  important  than  along  the  other  shores. 
Despite  the  imperfection  of  the  harbors  from  Hat- 
teras southward,  the  coast  of  North  America  is,  on 
the  Avhole,  the  most  completely  maritime  of  any  con- 
tinent except  Europe.  Its  landlocked  waters,  in- 
cluding the  great  lakes,  are  of  vast  extent ;  the  total 
number  of  excellent  ports  possibly  exceeds  that  of 
the  Old  World.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  we  are 
to  have  in  North  America  two  great  maritime  dis- 
tricts, and  a  third  in  the  south,  of  less  importance,  to 
add  to  our  list  of  national  labor-fields. 

In  this  general  survey  we  have  to  consider  the 
natural-employment  divisions  of  this  country,  and 
endeavor  to  forecast  their  economic  history  and  the 
quality  of  the  population  which  their  condition  is 
likely  to  induce.  This  task  may  advantageously 
begin  with  the  New  England  section,  —  a  region 
which,  by  its  geographic  as  well  as  its  economic  con- 
ditions, is  one  of  the  most  specialized  parts  of  North 
America.  In  our  considerations  it  is  not  desirable 
to  take  an  account  of  the  line,  in  the  main  of  a  very 


218      NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

arbitrary  nature,  which  now  separates  Canada  from 
the  United  States.  Whatever  be  the  political  future 
of  these  countries,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  their  des- 
tined economic  and  social  unity.  The  several  ques- 
tions which  now  separate  them  are  of  such  a  nature 
that  we  may  be  sure  they  will  in  the  end  lead  to  a 
closer  union. 

The  matter  of  the  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada  is  now  so  much  under  debate  that 
it  may  be  worth  while  to  turn  for  the  moment  aside 
from  the  path  of  our  considerations  to  note  the  geo- 
graphic aspects  of  this  international  problem.  We 
may  in  the  first  place  observe  that  the  lines  of  separa- 
tion between  the  northeastern  and  southeastern  por- 
tions of  North  America  which  lie  to  the  eastward  of 
the  head  of  Lake  Superior  are  in  a  geographic  way 
tolerably  accented.  Although  the  narrows  between 
the  several  basins  of  the  great  lakes  are  tolerably 
constricted,  these  inland  seas  afford  a  strong  line  of 
parting  between  the  two  English-speaking  peoples  of 
North  America  for  the  distance  of  nearly  a  thousand 
miles  between  the  outlet  of  Lake  Ontario  and  the 
westernmost  portion  of  Lake  Superior.  From  Lake 
Ontario  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  the  river  of  that 
name,  for  the  greater  portion  of  its  length  an  arm  of 
the  sea,  is  also  a  very  distinct  line  of  demarcation. 
If  this  stream  and  its  tributary  lakes  constituted  the 
frontier  between  the  countries,  we  should  have  a  line 
about  as  strong  as  that  which  separates  Germany 
from  any  of  the  States  which  border  upon  it.     The 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  219 

fact  is,  however,  that  a  large  portion  of  Canada  lies 
to  the  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  system  of  waters ; 
and  throughout  that  greater  portion  of  the  boundary 
which  lies  between  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  the  parting  is  drawn  along  a  line 
which  has  no  more  physiographic  reality  than  the 
parallels  of  latitude. 

The  mineral  and  soil  resources  of  Canada  and  the 
United  States  are  of  such  a  nature  that  in  a  com- 
mercial sense  the  products  of  each  are  necessary  to 
supplement  those  of  the  other.  Although  Canada 
abounds  in  stores  of  metallic  wealth,  its  supply  of  coal 
is  scanty,  being  limited  to  certain  small  fields  along 
the  St.  Lawrence,  to  areas  of  lignite  in  the  central 
portion  of  the  continent,  and  to  some  poor  coals  of 
Mesozoic  age  on  the  Pacific  coast.  It  is  evident  that 
this  region,  which  from  its  climate  as  well  as  on  ac- 
count of  its  mineral  resources  needs  a  vast  supply  of 
good  fuel,  must  look  to  the  United  States  for  such 
materials.  On  the  other  hand,  within  the  limits  of 
Canada  there  are  doubtless  extensive  deposits  of  iron 
and  other  ores  which  could  be  advantageously  used 
at  the  furnaces  of  the  L^nited  States.  The  hio'h- 
grade  mineral  phosphates  known  as  apatite,  which 
have  a  large  place  in  certain  important  arts,  abound 
in  Canada,  and  have  not  been  found  in  workable 
c[iiantities  south  of  the  boundary-line  of  the  Domin- 
ion. A  careful  inspection  of  the  relative  mineral 
resources  contained  in  the  two  States  would  show  a 
similar  relation   to  that  which  we  note  with  refer- 


220  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

ence  to  the  great  staples  of  coal  and  iron.  The  Ca- 
nadian district  contains  great  quantities  of  copper 
ores,  extensive  deposits  of  iron  pyrite,  manganese, 
and  a  variety  of  other  rough  products  which  should 
enter  with  perfect  freedom  into  the  commerce  of  the 
continent. 

A  glance  at  the  soil  resources  of  the  two  regions 
shows  us  also  that  a  complete  and  uninterrupted  in- 
teraction of  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand  should 
prevail  between  the  two  countries.  The  greater  por- 
tion of  the  Dominion,  even  those  parts  which  have  a 
decided  agricultural  value,  is  too  far  north  for  the 
farmers  to  rear  Indian  corn.  A  great  number  of 
other  agricultural  products  of  the  United  States  are 
also  excluded  from  the  Canadian  fields  by  the  brevity 
of  the  summer  season.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Cana- 
dian district  is  very  well  suited  for  the  cultivation 
of  edible  roots  such  as  the  potato,  the  average  yield 
and  quality  of  the  crop  being  much  greater  than  in 
the  United  States.  Any  commercial  barriers  which 
tend  to  prevent  the  free  exchange  of  these  products 
of  the  soil  or  of  the  under  earth  are  contrary  to  the 
order  of  Nature.  In  so  far  as  they  exist,  they  serve 
to  deprive  each  region  of  the  opportunities  for  sub- 
sistence which  the  other  part  of  the  country  affords. 

Looking  at  the  matter  from  the  point  of  view  of 
science  alone,  we  note  the  fact  that  the  continent  of 
North  America,  being  a  curiously  united  land, 
affords  a  field  in  which  the  people  can,  more  than 
in  any  other  country  in  the  world,   profit  by  a  free 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  221 

exchange  of  supplies.  In  fact,  the  slight  amount  of 
localization  in  the  characteristics  of  the  country 
clearly  points  to  the  conclusion  that  a  perfectly  free 
intercourse  between  its  several  parts  is  a  general 
principle  which  should  prevail  in  its  commerce. 
Thus,  even  granting  that  there  may  be  portions  of 
the  world  in  which  it  is  well  to  limit  the  course  of 
trade,  it  seems  to  me  clear  that  on  this  broad  land 
at  least  we  should  have  a  perfectly  unembarrassed 
exchange  of  resources. 

There  is  yet  another  reason  why  it  seems  to  me 
desirable  that  there  should  be  a  complete  commercial 
union  between  the  northern  and  the  southern  portions 
of  this  country.  North  of  the  United  States  there  is 
a  great  area  which  is  very  well  fitted  for  summer  use ; 
but  the  winters  are  very  long,  and  of  such  severity  as 
to  hamper  all  forms  of  economic  activity.  If  the 
conditions  were  such  as  to  permit  and  favor  the  ready 
exchange  of  resources  and  of  population,  it  seems  to 
me  likely  that  in  time  to  come  we  might  look  for  a 
considerable  annual  migration  of  population  along 
the  meridional  paths.  Transportation  is  now  so 
cheap  that  many  laborers  in  the  fields  might  advan- 
tageously begin  their  season's  work  with  certain 
crops  of  the  southern  States  of  this  Union,  and  with , 
the  advancing  summer  continue  their  labors  in  the 
more  northern  realm.  Something  of  such  a  move- 
ment may  already  be  noticed  in  the  portion  of  the 
United  States  west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  where 
the  harvesters  of  grain  follow  the  crop  from  Texas 


222  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AlVIERICA. 

northward  into  Dakota,  and  so  extend  the  period 
during  which  they  earn  high  wages  over  a  term  of 
some  months'  duration. 

It  may  further  be  urged  in  favor  of  an  intimate 
relation  between  the  Canadian  Dominion  and  the 
United  States  that  the  social  status  of  the  people  of 
both  countries  would  thereby  be  advanced.  There 
is  now  no  question  that  the  Canadians  of  the  Lauren- 
tian  district,  at  least  those  of  British  origin,  consti- 
tute a  most  valuable  element  in  the  population  of  the 
continent.  They  are  a  vigorous  and  hardy  people, 
less  mingled  with  the  blood  of  immigrants  from 
Europe  or  Africa  than  the  folk  of  the  United  States. 
A  perfectly  free  economic  intercourse  between  these 
sections  of  the  continent  would  doubtless  be  advanta- 
geous to  the  condition  of  its  people. 

It  does  not  seem  desirable  to  confound  the  ques- 
tions as  to  the  commercial  boundaries  between  these 
two  countries  with  any  debates  concerning  their 
political  status.  In  the  present  state  of  the  govern- 
ment of  these  two  portions  of  North  America,  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  it  is  a  matter  of  very 
little  moment  to  which  of  them  a  citizen  owes  alle- 
giance. His  general  status  is  practically  the  same 
in  both  countries.  Even  the  social  or  caste  differ- 
ences which  are  to  be  observed  in  Great  Britain  have 
practically  no  place  in  Canada.  Therefore  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  physiographer,  as  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  politician,  it  seems  a  matter  of  no 
moment  whether  Canada  and  the  United  States  are 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  223 

members  of  a  common  political  system ;  while  it  is 
of  the  greatest  importance  whether  their  peoples  are 
alike  to  be  made  free  to  share  in  the  advantages 
which  the  continent  as  a  whole  affords. 

As  regards  the  division  line  between  Mexico  and 
the  United  States,  the  situation  differs  a  good  deal 
from  that  which  we  have  just  considered  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Federal  union  of  the  Dominion,  and  this 
for  the  reason  that  Mexico  has  a  relatively  low-grade 
population,  —  the  greater  part  of  its  people  being  of 
a  hybrid  race,  arising  from  the  commingling  of 
Spanish  and  Indian  blood.  So  far  as  the  United 
States  is  concerned,  it  is  clearly  desirable  to  avoid  a 
commingling  of  our  population  with  that  of  the  coun- 
tries on  our  southern  border. 

The  New  England  section  of  North  America,  in- 
cluding as  such  all  the  varied  district  from  New- 
foundland to  the  Hudson,  is  well  named.  On  the 
whole  it  moreclosely  resembles,  in  its  conditions  of 
shores,  the  surface  and  soil,  the  islands  and  penin- 
sulas of  northern  Europe,  in  which  our  Northmen 
folk  developed,  than  does  any  other  part  of  this  con- 
tinent. The  geological  history  of  the  two  regions  is 
very  similar.  Both  are  mainly  composed  of  ancient 
rocks,  "and  both  these  ancient  rocks  have  been  much 
crumbled  by  the  mountam-building  forces.  Both 
have  been  subjecte"d^  to  a  vast  amount  of  glacial  wear- 
ing ;  their  soils  have  certain  common  qualities  given 
by  ice  action.  In  boOTwe  have  a  close  combination 
of  agriculturafand  mineral  resources. 


224  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

The  New  England  section  of  Xorth  America,  in- 
cluding the  St.  Lawrence  district  in  that  field,  is 
essentially  the  maritime  portion  of  North  America. 
Within  its  limits  we  find  the  largest  amount  of  shore- 
line for  a  given  distance  along  the  main  coast  of  the 
continent.  There  are  more  deep  bays  and  fjords,  and 
larger  islands,  than  along  any  other  portion  of  the 
Atlantic  border  of  the  United  States.  The  depth 
and  intricacy  of  these  indentations  of  the  shore 
steadily  diminish  from  the  region  about  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  district  about  the  Hudson  River, 
where  the  coast  altogether  loses  its  fjord-like  char- 
acter. Thus  on  Cape  Breton  the  wonderful  inlet 
known  as  the  Bras  d'Or,  which  divides  the  island  al- 
most in  twain,  has,  it  is  said,  an  aggregate  shore-line 
of  about  fifteen  hundred  miles,  counting  in  this  total 
the  shores  of  the  numerous  islands  which  it  contains 
as  well  as  those  which  bound  the  water.  These  sin- 
gular recesses  are  abundant  along  the  coast  of  Nova 
Scotia  as  well  as  that  of  Maine.  They  are  rarer  in 
Massachusetts,  and  are  scarcely  distinguishable  in 
the  part  of  Connecticut  to  the  west  of  New  London. 
The,  origin  of  this  interesting  topography,  which  has 
so  great  an  influence  on  the  sea-faring  conditions  of 
thejiortheastern  part  of  the  continent,  is  found  partly 
iru.the  action  of  glacial  ice,  which  has  served  to 
deepen  and  complicate  the  river  valleys  of  this  part 
of  the  country,  and  partly  in  the  fact  that  after  the 
valleys  had  been  formed  the  region  was  lowered  to 
such  a  depth  beneath  the  sea  that  its  water  flooded 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  225 

all  the  low  ground,  leaving  the  divides  between  the 
streams  in  the  form  of  elongated  promontories  or 
islands.  We  see  in  this  instance  as  in  many  others, 
when  we  come  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the 
earth's  sm^face  in  regard  to  the  uses  of  man,  how  the 
geological  actions  of  a  remote  and  at  first  sight 
apparently  unrelated  past  have  had  a  vast  influence 
upon  the  status  of  man. 

The  surface  of  the  New  England  and  Laurentian 
district  throughout  its  whole  extent  may  be  de- 
scribed as  mountainous.  Save  in  the  southeastern 
portion  of  the  country,  every  part  of  the  field  con- 
tains decided  mountain  ridges  worn  to  their  roots  by 
the  work  of  the  rivers  and  the  recurrent  action  of 
glaciers  and  sea,  but  still  giving  the  surface  a  truly 
mountainous  character.  The  result  is  here,  as  else- 
where, that  in  a  large  part  of  the  mountainous  dis- 
tricts not  far  from  one  half  of  the  whole  field  is 
sterile  from  the  lack  of  sufficient  soil,  or  fit  only  for 
the  growth  of  forest-trees.  This  feature  insures  to  the 
district  the  permanence  of  the  timber  industry. 

The  tillable  soils  of  the  New  England  and  Lauren- 
tian field  lie_j20stly  in  the  valleys  between  the 
important  mountain-ranges;  they  are  glacial  soils, 
formed  of_the  materials  brought  to  their  place  by  the 
ancient^glaciers ;  they  have  certain  peculiar  charac- 
teristics..i_2When  first  won  to  the  plough  they  are  of 
only  moderate  fertility.  Largely  composed  of  peb- 
bles and  boulders,  the  amount  of  plant  food  they 
contain  does  not  compare  with  that  which  is  held  in 

15 


226  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  prairie  soils,  where  for  ages  the  conditions  have 
favored  the  preparation  of  the  materials  required  by 
vegetation.  They  have,  however,  the  peculiarity  that 
they  gain  in  fertility  by  skilful  tillage,  even  without 
artificial  fertilizing,  while  the  prairie  ground  stead- 
ily diminishes  in  its  productiveness  under  cultiva- 
tion. All  the  pebbles  in  our  stony  fields,  except 
those  composed  of  quartz,  are  constantly  yieldifig 
some  part  of  their  materials  to  refresh  the  soil.  A 
pebble  of  granite  or  of  the  kindred  crystalline  rocks 
commonly  contains  considerable  quantities  of  potash, 
soda,  lime,  and  phosphorus,  —  substances  which  are 
most  rapidly  brought  into  the  state  where  they  may 
be  appropriated  by  plants  when  the  soil  is  used  by 
man. 

At  present  the  tide  of  immigration  sets  from  New 
England  to  the  West,  where  cheap  lands  with  their 
great  though  unenduring  store  of  fertile  materials 
await  the  settler.  This  stage  in  our  history,  where 
cheap  but  unpermanently  fertile  lands  are  to  be  had 
almost  for  the  asking,  is  now  nearly  passed  by.  In 
another  generation  these  opportunities  will  no  longer 
exist,  and  it  is  thus  likely  that  with  the  relative  in- 
crease in  the  value  of  soil  products  the  agricultural 
position  of  New  England  will  be  improved.  From  a 
somewhat  careful  study  of  the  New  England  States, 
as  well  as  a  portion  of  the  Laurentian  district,  I  have 
become  convinced  that  this  northeastern  field  has  far 
greater  agricultural  possibilities  than  is  commonly 
supposed.     A  very  large  part  of  the  neglect  to  which 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  227 

these  fields  have  been  subjected  is  due  to  the  with- 
drawal of  the  population  from  them  to  manufacturing 
life,  to  occupations  Avhich  for  a  time  afforded  a  larger 
remuneration  than  the  tillage  of  a  stubborn  buJL  not 
unfruitful  soil. 

""Wlien  the  Western  country  is  fully  occupied 
through  immigration,  and  the  natural  increase  of  our 
native  people,  there  is  every  reason  t^_lielieve  that 
agriculture  in  the  northeastern  part  of  our  country 
will  attain  something  of  the  relatTve  importance 
which  it  had  in  those  districts  a  century  ago.  This 
seems  the  more  probable  when  we  note  the  fact  that 
a  large  portion  of  the  richest  soils  of  New  England 

—  the  swamp-lands  —  was  never  won  to  the  plough. 
In  the  Laurentian  and  New  England  district  we  have 
not  far  from  ten  thousand  square  miles  of  morasses, 

—  areas  which  demand  a  considerable  expenditure  of 
capital  before  they  can  be  brought  to  the  tiller's  use, 
but  which,  when  so  won,  afford  fields  of  surpassing 
fertility.  Up  to  the  time  when  the  great  West  was 
opened  to  settlement,  the  population  of  New  England 
had  not  become  dense  enough  to  drive  the  people  to 
this  class  of  soils ;  but  with  the  inevitable  crowding 
of  our  American  population  which  the  next  century 
is  to  bring  about,  these  swamps  will  be  drained,  and 
by  their  drainage  a  vast  area  of  excellent  land  will 
be  won  to  tillage. 

This  northeast  section  of  the  continent  has  a^ir 
share  of  subterranean  resources,  including  a  wide 
range  of  metals  and  a  very  plentiful  and  varied  store 


228  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

of  building  materials.  Last  of  all,  it  is  peculiarly 
the  seat  of  the  greater  water-powers  of  this  country. 
This  abundance  of  streams  suited  for  mechanical  pur- 
poses is  due  to  the  relatively  considerable  height  of 
the  district  and  the  frequent  great  thickness  of  the 
glacial  deposits  in  which  the  rain-waters  are  retained 
and  slowly  yielded  to  the  streams. 

It  is  easy  from  the  facts  stated-  above  to  foresee 
that  in  the  future  the  New  England  district  —  in- 
cluding as  we  have  done,  the  region  about  the  St. 
Lawrence  —  is  to  be  the  seat  of  the  most  varied  oc- 
cupations. No  other  part  of  the  United  States  so 
well  combines  the  conditions  for  maritime,  agricultu- 
ral, mining,  and  manufacturing  labor  as  this  terri- 
tory. Further  variety  in  the  life  to  come  is  insured 
by  the  remarkable  mixture  of  races  in  this  territory. 
In  Nova  Scotia  we  have  perhaps  the  largest  body  of 
Highland  Scotch  outside  of  the  mother  country ;  and 
in  this  region,  where  this  blood  is  so  little  mingled 
with  that  of  other  lands,  the  Gaelic  language  is  the 
common  form  of  speech.  In  Lower  Canada  there  are 
several  large  settlements  where  the  people  are  almost 
entirely  derived  from  northern  France.  New  Eng- 
land proper  has  many  areas  where  Irish  Celts  and 
their  descendants  outnumber  the  original  New  Eng- 
land stock.  Here  and  there  are  considerable  colonies 
of  other  peoples,  —  Scandinavians,  Germans,  and 
Azorian  Portuguese.  At  present  it  seems  likely 
that  the  peoples  presumably  of  Celtic  stock  —  the 
Irish,  Canadian-French,    and  Highland   Scots  —  will 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  229 

in  another  fifty  years  greatly  outnumber  the  original 
New  Englanders.  So  far,  however,  the  immigrants 
from  continental  Europe  have  in  the  main  betaken 
themselves  to  the  cities  of  New  England,  and  have 
shown  little  disposition  to  obtain  control  of  the  soil. 
The  rural  neighborhoods  are  still  characteristically 
English,  and  for  all  that  we  can  see  at  present  bid 
fair  to  remain  so  for  a  hundred  years  to  come.  Al- 
though much  of  the  strength  of  New  England  has 
gone  West  to  found  new  States,  enough  remains  to 
insure  the  perpetuation  of  the  original  stock,  so  that 
we  may  look  forward  to  another  element  in  the  diver- 
sification of  New  England  conditions  wherein  the 
towns  will  be  largely  composed  of  descendants  of 
foreigners  of  alien  race,  and  the  country  districts  of 
folk  of  English  blood. 

South  and  west  of  New  England  we  have  another 
characteristic  group  of  States  in  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, New  Jersey,  and  Delaware,  —  a  region 
tolerably  well  marked  by  its  conditions  of  surface 
and  climate  so  far  as  those  affect  the  development  of 
man.  In  this  district,  which  is  about  as  extensive 
as  the  New  England  and  Laurentian  district  above 
described,  we  have  an  area  in  which  the  maritime 
conditions  are  less  pronounced,  the  agricultural  re- 
sources —  as  determined  by  the  soil  and  climate  — 
proportionately  more  considerable,  and  the  mineral 
resources  very  ihuch  larger  than  in  the  more  northern 
realm.  While  in  the  New  England  section,  practi- 
cally, the  whole  of  the  surface  is  mountain-built,  and 


230  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

not  more  than  one  third  of  the  area  is  suited  to  agri- 
culture, in  the  New  York  district,  as  we  may  term 
it,  the  mountainous  sections  occupy  not  over  one 
third  of  the  total  area,  and  the  soil  is,  on  the  whole, 
much  more  tillable.  The  mineral  resources  of  this 
field,  particularly  those  which  are  applied  to  the  pro- 
duction of  power,  —  coal,  petroleum,  and  natural  gas, 
—  are  the  staples  of  its  geological  wealth.  Includ- 
ing a  small  portion  of  Ohio,  we  have  in  this  section 
the  largest  store  of  these  materials  that  is  afforded 
by  any  equal  portion  of  the  earth.  On  the  other 
hand,  while  the  power  derived  from  ancient  sunshine 
and  stored  in  the  form  of  carbon  in  the  rocks  is  more 
plentiful  in  this  district  than  in  New  England,  the 
immediate  energy  of  water-power,  due  to  the  heat  of 
the  present  day,  is  less  ayailable  than  in  New  Eng- 
land. Except  at  Niagara  Falls,  where  there  is  a 
vast  but  as  yet  unusable  store  of  solar  energy,  this 
district,  owing  to  the  relative  thinness  of  its  glacial 
accumulations  and  the  consequent  impermanence  of 
the  rivers,  presents  no  such  advantages  to  the  manu- 
facturer as  are  afforded  by  the  New  England  streams. 

In  general,  the  physiographic  conditions  of  this 
group  of  States  afford  the  basis  of  an  exceedingly 
varied  life.  The  different  forms  of  activity  are 
likely  to  be  only  less  closely  associated  than  in  New 
England.  The  natural  manufacturing  centres  are 
widely  distributed,  and  the  mineral  resources  lie 
well  in  the  body  of  the  tillable  land. 

South  of  New  Jersev  and  Pennsvlvania  we  have  a 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  231 

somewhat  characteristic  group  of  Commonwealths, 
including  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  This,  which 
we  may  call  the  Virginia  group  of  States,  differs  in 
many  ways  from  the  two  northern  associations  which 
we  have  just  considered.  The  first  and  most  impor- 
tant peculiarity  consists  in  the  character  of  the  soils. 
The  whole  of  New  York  and  a  large  part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey  have  had  the  character  of 
their  soils  determined  by  the  peculiar  grinding  of 
the  surface  and  distribution  of  the  waste  which  was 
brought  about  by  the  glacial  period.  Although  a 
trace  of  this  ice  action  is  observable  in  Virginia,  the 
region  as  a  whole  was  substantially  unaffected  by  the 
tread  of  the  marching  ice.  This  difference  leads 
to  a  great  modification  in  the  character  of  the  soils. 
In  place  of  being  the  product  of  that  distinct  carriage 
which  has  brought  the  soils  of  the  glaciated  coun- 
tries to  their  places,  the  upland  portion  of  these 
States  is  covered  by  an  earthy  coating  derived  from 
the  immediate  decay  of  the  rocks  beneath  the 
surface. 

The  Appalachian  Mountain  system,  in  its  two  ele- 
ments of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghanies,  widens 
as  we  go  southward  from  the  Potomac.  The  result 
is  that  an  even  gTcater  share  of  these  States  consists 
of  mountainous  elevations  than  we  find  in  the  New 
York  group.  The  western  portion  of  each  State  is 
occupied  by  heights  which  rise  so  far  above  the  level 
of  the  sea  that  the  climate  is  greatly  affected  by 
the  uplift.     These  mountains  are,  however,  far  loss 


232  NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

sterile  than  those  of  the  New  York  and  New  England 
districts;  not  having  been  swept  over  by  the  ice, 
they  retain  their  original  soils,  and  thus  afford  larger 
areas  for  tillage  than  are  found  in  the  more  northern 
highlands.  In  each  of  these  States,  by  way  of  con- 
trast with  their  upland  districts,  we  have  along  the 
shore  a  broad  belt  of  lowlands,  — territories  which 
were  until  very  recent  times  beneath  the  level  of 
the  sea.  This  great  southern  plain,  which  extends 
from  New  Jersey  southward,  widening  as  we  go 
toward  the  equator,  affords,  compared  with  the 
mountain  districts,  one  of  the  sharpest  contrasts  of 
conditions  which  are  found  in  any  part  of  this 
country. 

Owing  to  the  slight  elevation  of  the  plain  region, 
its  nearness  to  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  the  protection 
which  the  mountains  afford  on  the  northwest,  the 
climate  becomes  very  much  warmer  on  this  plain  as 
we  proceed  southward.  Between  dawn  and  dark  of 
a  winter's  day  we  can  journey  from  the  frigid  condi- 
tions of  New  York  to  the  semi-tropical  climate  of 
Charleston,  — from  the  realm  of  frost  to  one  of 
flowers.  With  a  shorter  journey  from  the  moun- 
tainous heights  of  the  western  Carolinas,  which  have 
a  winter  temperature  about  as  low  as  that  of  New 
York,  we  may  pass  toward  the  sea  through  the  same 
range  in  temperature  conditions.  This  contrast  in 
climate  is  equalled  by  that  between  the  under-earth 
resources  of  these  two  sections.  In  the  mountainous 
portion  of  the  States  of  the  Virginia  gi^oup  we  have 


NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  233 

an  abundance  of  mineral  wealth,  the  search  for 
which  has  but  begun.  Gold,  iron,  copper,  zinc, 
and  various  other  substances  of  economic  importance 
exist  in  the  upland  portion  of  this  area,  while  the 
lowland  parts  have  as  yet  afforded  but  small  supplies 
of  such  materials,  phosphates  being  the  only  geologic 
element  of  great  importance.  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  the  plain-land  region  of  this  district  is  to  de- 
velop purely  agricultural  industries,  while  the  upland 
section,  by  its  admirable  combination  of  soil,  no- 
ble forests,  and  mineral  resources,  is  to  have  more 
varied  industries,  and  therefore  a  more  diversified 
life. 

Although  within  the  above-mentioned  States  the 
resources  of  fossil  fuel  are  limited,  we  find  imme- 
diately on  the  west  of  the  district  and  everywhere 
convenient  to  it,  the  vast  coal-measures  of  Tennes- 
see, Kentucky,  and  West  Virginia  fields,  which 
afford  bituminous  coals  quite  equal  to  those  which 
have  been  the  foundations  of  the  commercial  indus- 
tries of  Great  Britain.  Thus,  this  region  of  south- 
ern uplands  has  in  its  soil,  its  forests,  and  its 
mineral  resources,  a  combination  of  advantages  per- 
haps greater  than  those  of  any  other  equal  area  in 
the  world.  In  addition  to  these  favoring  conditions, 
the  region  possesses  an  admirable  climate.  In 
winter  the  temperature  falls"  low  enough  to  insure 
the  preservation  of  bodily  vigor ;  in  summer  the  heat 
is  less  ardent  than  in  the  lower-lying  regions  of  the 
New  England  and  New  York  group  of  States.     In  the 


234  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Virginia  section  we  find  a  climate  resembling  in  its 
range  of  temperatures  those  which  characterize  the 
most  favored  regions  of  the  Old  World;  and  it  is 
there  perhaps  we  may  look  for  the  preservation  of 
our  race's  best  characteristics. 

The  lowland  country,  on  the  other  hand,  appears 
to  be  too  warm  to  afford  the  most  satisfactory  condi- 
tions for  our  people.  Although  the  whites  appear  to 
be  able  to  work  in  the  fields  during  the  summer 
season,  the  malarious  influence  common  to  a  large 
part  of  the  territory,  as  well  as  the  lack  of  a  really 
tonic  winter,  does  not  promise  a  brilliant  future  for 
European  peoples  in  the  seaboard  portion  of  the 
district. 

The  population  of  this  group  of  States  is  as  diversi- 
fied as  their  physical  conditions.  In  the  lower-lying 
lands  the  negro  folk  constitute  a  large,  and  appear 
to  be  physically  the  most  successful,  portion  of  the 
population.  In  the  plains  between  northern  Florida 
and  Chesapeake  Bay  the  negro  finds  apparently  the 
most  satisfactory  environment  which  this  continent 
affords  him.  His  contact  with  the  whites  is  suffi- 
ciently close  to  stimulate  his  languid  industrial  mo- 
tives, and  the  climate  fits  his  needs  in  a  very 
tolerable  way.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  tribes  of  Africa, 
from  which  our  blacks  came,  are  in  any  better  phys- 
ical condition  than  their  descendants  on  the  Atlan- 
tic coast. 

Although  the  negroes  constitute  the  largest  ele- 
ment in  the  population  along  the  shore-lands  of  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  235 

Carolinas  and  Georgia,  the  upland  section  is  almost 
devoid  of  Africans.  This  peculiar  feature  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  blacks  was  brought  about,  as  before 
remarked,  by  the  unfitness  of  the  upland  country  for 
the  crops  on  which  the  plantations  of  the  South  de- 
pended ;  it  has  been  maintained  by  the  disinclination 
of  the  negro  to  dwell  in  cold  countries,  and  the  indis- 
position of  the  white  population  to  tolerate  their 
presence.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the 
negro  population  will  not  become  more  extensive  in 
the  upland  section  of  the  South  than  it  is  at  the 
present  time.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  most  likely 
that  they  will  spontaneously  gather  to  the  warm  low- 
lands, leaving  the  cooler  grounds  to  the  white  race. 
If  this  be  the  case,  —  if  the  Southern  mountains  are 
left  to  the  whites,  we  may  reasonably  expect  this 
region  will  become  one  of  the  most  important  seats 
of  an  unmixed  American  population.  It  is  not  in 
the  pathway  of  immigration,  and  as  yet  it  is  occu- 
pied almost  altogether  by  the  descendants  of  British 
immigrants. 

South  of  Georgia  we  find  ourselves  at  the  base  of 
the  most  singular  peninsula  of  this  country,  if  indeed 
it  be  not  the  most  remarkable  mass  of  land  on  the 
borders  of  any  continent.  The  peninsula  of  Florida 
affords  the  most  distinct  field,  in  a  physiographic 
sense,  of  any  part  of  North  America.  Including  the 
northern  portion  of  the  State,  it  has  a  length  of  about 
six  hundred  miles,  an  average  width  of  near  one  hun- 
dred miles,  and  a  total  area  greater  than  that  of  New 


236  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

York,  and  nearly  as  great  as  that  of  New  England. 
In  all  this  great  realm  the  maximum  height  above 
the  level  of  the  sea  does  not  exceed  about  four  hun- 
dred feet.  The  whole  of  the  soil  is  composed  of 
materials  recently  brought  together  on  the  sea  floor. 
About  one  fourth  of  the  soil  area  is  limy,  due  to  the 
coral  rock  which  underlies  it.  The  remainder  is 
nearly  pure  sand  of  a  rather  infertile  nature.  All 
the  soil  owes  its  value  in  the  main  to  the  admirable 
climate  which  the  region  enjoys. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  Florida  peninsula  are 
of  the  most  limited  nature.  Certain  deposits  of 
phosphatic  rocks  exist,  apparently  of  sufficient  rich- 
ness to  give  them  a  great  economic  importance. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  geological  values,  save  for 
these  mineral  resources,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  abso- 
lutely sterile  section  of  North  America. 

Owing  to  its  peninsulated  form,  Florida  has  a  shore- 
line of  more  than  two  thousand  miles  in  length; 
owing  also  to  the  extended  system  of  harbors  which 
the  coral  reefs  have  created,  this  region  has  a  mari- 
time character  and  fitness  of  contact  with  the  sea 
which  is  not  enjoyed  by  any  other  portion  of  the 
coast  south  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  harbors, 
though  shallow,  afford  tolerable  protection  to  small 
vessels ;  and  the  extraordinary  wealth  of  fish  in  the 
waters  makes  it  certain  that  in  the  future  this  region 
is  to  have  an  industry  resting  upon  the  harvest  of 
marine  life  such  as  is  afforded  by  no  other  section  of 
the   Atlantic   coast.     Not   onlv    do   the   food   fishes 


XATUKE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.      237 

abound,  but  the  waters  afford  vast  quantities  of 
sponge ;  and  the  species  of  marine  turtles  find  a  better 
station  along  this  shore  than  in  any  other  section  of 
the  continent. 

The  physical  conditions  of  Florida  favor  the  devel- 
opment on  this  shore  of  several  industries  which 
have  not  as  yet  any  place  in  its  economies.  Thus 
we  may  instance  the  culture  of  the  sponge-making 
communities  of  animals,  many  species  of  which  find 
a  very  favorable  station  in  the  shallower  parts  of  the 
sea  near  the  coast-line.  The  area  of  sea-bottom 
which  seems  to  be  fit  for  this  form  of  culture  is 
very  great,  probably  in  all  exceeding  three  thousand 
square  miles. 

At  present  the  propagation  of  sponges  is  left  alto- 
gether to  accident,  while  the  search  for  them  is  un- 
tiring, and  carried  on  by  processes  which  bid  fair  to 
lead  to  the  extermination  of  the  creatures.  Euro- 
pean experiments,  made  it  seems  in  less  favorable 
situations,  have  shown  that  it  is  possible  to  plant 
sponges  in  a  methodical  way  and  at  no  great  cost  on 
the  bottoms  of  the  shallow  seas,  and  after  a  few 
years  of  growth  to  harvest  an  abundant  crop.  So, 
too,  the  green  turtle  of  commerce,  which  once 
abounded  along  these  shores,  has  been  greatly  dimin- 
ished in  numbers  by  persistent  and  unreasonable 
pursuit.  Not  only  have  the  adult  creatures  been 
recklessly  captured,  but  it  is  the  habit  of  the  people 
as  well  as  of  several  wild  animals  to  seek  out  and 
destroy  their   nests.     The   eggs  of   this  interesting 


238  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

reptile  can  doubtless  be  artificially  hatclied,  and 
their  young  kept  in  captivity  for  a  sufficient  time  to 
protect  them  from  the  dangers  incident  to  their  im- 
mature state.  It  seems,  indeed,  not  improbable  that 
it  may  be  possible  to  breed  it  in  captivity  by  some 
system  of  enclosures  at  the  mouths  of  the  many  small 
embayments  which  abomid  along  the  coral  reefs. 
Retained  within  such  basins,  the  creatures  could  be 
supplied  with  appropriate  food  during  the  process 
of  their  growth. 

The  physical  conditions  of  Florida  make  it  plain 
that  this  peninsula  is  to  deyelop  its  life  on  the  lines 
of  agriculture  and  of  marine  industries.  The  agri- 
culture is  destined  to  be  of  a  peculiar  sort,  — garden- 
ing, in  fact,  rather  than  the  ordinary  field  tillage. 
The  tropical  and  subtropical  fruits  —  the  orange,  the 
lemon,  the  lime,  and  tenderer  sorts  of  vegetables  — 
may  be  easily  reared,  and  assure  the  agricultural 
possibilities  of  this  district.  It  can  never  be  a  corn- 
bearing  country,  and  an  extensive  grazing  industry  is 
practically  excluded  by  the  imperfect  gTOwth  of  the 
grasses.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  this  land  is  wrapped 
around  by  the  sea,  the  summer  temperature  as  well 
as  the  winter  is  insular  in  its  character;  although  at 
present  the  region  is  a  prey  to  fevers,  they  seem  due, 
not  to  an  essential  imhealthfulness  of  the  climate, 
but  to  the  bad  sanitation.  Even  in  the  extreme 
south,  on  the  Keys  and  the  shores  of  the  beautiful 
Bay  of  Biscayne,  the  people  appear  to  be  very 
healthy ;  the  children  are  vigorous,  extreme  old  age 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  239 

is  frequently  attained,  and  there  appears  to  be  an 
exemption  from  deadly  malarial  fever.  We  may 
best  judge  as  to  the  climatal  effect  on  man  by  the 
condition  of  the  Indians,  which  is  excellent.  No 
portion  of  our  aborigines  appears  to  be  in  a  better 
physical  or  moral  state  than  the  Seminoles  of 
Florida. 

It  is  an  advantage  enjoyed  by  this  section,  which 
it  shares  with  the  highlands  of  the  South,  that  the 
negro  population  is  very  small.  Although  the 
climate  is  one  which  suits  the  negro,  the  present  in- 
dustries, and  those  which  we  may  foresee  for  the 
future,  make  it  likely  that  this  race  will  be  slow  to 
take  possession  of  the  country. 

On  the  west  of  Florida  and  Georgia  lie  a  group  of 
States  which  face  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Between 
western  Florida  and  western  Louisiana,  and  back  to 
near  the  northern  border  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi, 
we  have  a  region  of  lowlands  which  derive  their 
quality  from  their  relations  to  the  Mexican  Gulf. 
The  low-lying  portion  of  these  States  is,  in  its  geo- 
logical history,  like  the  equivalent  section  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.  It  is  an  old  sea-bottom  which  has 
recently  been  elevated  above  the  ocean.  The  soil, 
save  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  is  of  only  moder- 
ate fertility;  but  it  bears  luxuriant  forests,  and  is 
excellently  suited  to  the  great  staple,  cotton,  on 
which  the  commercial  development  of  the  section 
has  rested.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  these  States  lie 
at  the  southern  end  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  are 


240  NATURE  AND  IMAN  IN  AMERICA. 

unprotected  by  mountains  from  the  winter  blasts, 
the}^  are  subject  to  great  variations  in  temperature. 
The  summer  heats  are  great,  and  to  the  white  popu- 
lation enervating.  The  winter  cold,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  considerable,  sufficient  indeed  to  bring 
something  of  the  tonic  effect  upon  which  our  race  is 
so  accustomed  to  depend. 

The  northern  part  of  Alabama,  as  is  well  known, 
aboimds  in  stores  of  coal  and  iron.  In  topography  it 
is  sharply  contrasted  with  the  southern  portion  of  the 
State,  and  its  wealth  of  mineral  resources  insures  in 
that  section  a  large  manufacturing  industry  depend- 
ent on  the  materials  from  below  the  soil. 

The  population  of  the  States  between  western 
Florida  and  eastern  Texas  is,  on  the  whole,  a  less 
satisfactory  part  of  our  American  people,  for  the 
reason  that  the  negro  element  holds  at  present,  and 
is  likely  for  all  the  foreseeable  future  to  hold,  a 
greater  place  in  this  territory  than  in  any  other  part 
of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  that  at  present 
South  Carolina  abounds  in  blacks  in  an  equal  meas- 
ure with  Alabama  and  Mississippi ;  but  with  the 
growth  in  population  of  the  highland  district  of  the 
former  State,  we  may  fairly  expect  that  this  prepon- 
derance of  the  African  element  will  disappear.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  southern  Alabama,  in  Mississippi 
and  Louisiana,  the  conditions  of  the  soil  and  of  the 
climate  clearly  point  to  a  vast  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  blacks,  without  a  proportionate  gain  in  the 
European   population.       There    is   more    danger   of 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  241 

Africanization  in  this  section  than  in  any  other  part 
of  the  United  States. 

North  of  the  Gulf  States,  and  thence  to  the  great 
lakes,  and  westward  to  the  Mississippi,  we  have  the 
valley  of  the  noblest  tributary  of  the  Mississippi,  — 
the  Ohio,  containing  within  its  basin  the  northern- 
most portions  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama  and  a  por- 
tion of  western  Georgia,  of  North  and  South  Carolina, 
a  part  of  Virginia  and  West  Virginia,  the  whole  of 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and  the  greater  part  of 
Indiana  and  Illinois.  Although  the  geographic  limi- 
tations of  this  great  basin  are  not  sharp,  they  are 
sufficiently  accented  to  make  it  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  divisions  of  the  continent.  This  in- 
dividuality is  further  affirmed,  as  we  shall  see,  by 
its  qualities  of  soil,  climate,  and  its  subterranean 
resources. 

The  basin  of  the  Ohio,  with  the  exception  of  some 
parts  of  its  headwaters,  the  Upper  Kanawha  and  the 
tributaries  of  the  Tennessee,  lies  well  within  the 
broad  trough  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  It  is  thus 
in  the  path  of  the  great  air  movements  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  northward,  and  from  the  Arctic  Sea 
southward.  Atmospherically  considered,  it  is  like 
the  other  parts  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  —  a  region 
of  combat  between  torrid  and  frigid  conditions.  In 
the  winter  season  the  dominance  of  polar  winds 
brings  low  temperature  upon  all  parts  of  the  area. 
In  the  summer  half  of  the  year  the  superior  power  of 
the  tropical  northward-setting  winds  brings  it  into 

16 


242  NATURE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

almost  torrid  heat.  The  range  of  climatal  variation, 
measured  bj  the  periods  of  seasonal  length,  is  per- 
haps greater  in  this  valley  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  continent.  The  surface  of  this  region  is  essen- 
tially without  mountains.  Though  the  western 
tributaries  of  the  Ohio  rise  in  the  highest  land  on 
the  Atlantic  side  of  the  continent,  the  portion  of  the 
valley  which  can  be  termed  mountain-built  does  not 
include  more  than  one  tenth  of  its  area.  The  result 
is  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  surface  is  tillable. 
Probably  not  more  than  one  fiftieth  of  the  total  area 
is  permanently  unfitted  for  the  uses  of  the  husband- 
man. 

The  soil  of  the  Ohio  district  has  been  but  little 
affected  by  glacial  action.  It  is  true  that  the  ice  in 
the  most  developed  state  of  the  old  continental  gla- 
ciers overlaid  the  greater  part  of  the  Ohio,  touching 
the  surface  of  Kentucky  immediately  south  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  occupying  by  far  the  greater  part  of  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  as  well  as  those  parts  of  the  headwaters 
of  the  Ohio  which  lie  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York ; 
but  over  the  most  of  this  district  the  ice  was  thin, 
and  the  amount  of  glacially  transported  material  less 
considerable  than  in  the  normally  glaciated  districts 
of  the  north  and  east.  As  a  whole,  the  soils  may 
be  classed  as  those  of  immediate  derivation,  those 
originating  with  the  decay  of  the  subjacent  rocks. 
As  the  geological  strata  of  the  Ohio  valley  vary 
greatly  in  their  mineral  constitution,  the  soils  de- 
rived from  them  are  naturally  divided  into  a  good 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  243 

many  classes.  Thus  we  have  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee a  wide  range  of  Silurian  limestones,  which  by 
their  decay  afford  soils  of  extraordinary  fertility, 
those  which  give  character  to  the  well-known  blue- 
grass  district.  It  is  worth  while  to  note  in  passing 
that  this  singular  richness  of  the  earth  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  in  these  limestones  there  are  certain  thin 
layers  composed  almost  wholly  of  the  remains  of 
minute  creatures  which  had  the  peculiarity  of  taking 
lime  phosphate  from  the  sea  and  building  it  at  their 
death  in  the  deposits  formed  on  the  old  sea-floors. 
When  elevated  into  land  and  subjected  to  the  pro- 
cess of  decay,  these  rocks  afford,  under  the  action 
of  the  atmosphere,  soils  of  great  fertility.  So  we 
see  that  the  fruitfulness  of  our  fields  may  depend 
upon  the  nature  of  organic  beings  in  the  remotest 
past. 

Throughout  the  Ohio  valley,  except  along  the 
margins  of  the  streams  where  the  soil  has  been 
brought  to  its  resting-place  by  flood- waters,  we  find 
everywhere  sharp  contrasts  in  the  fertility  of  the 
soil.  Already,  although  the  history  of  the  country 
extends  back  for  but  a  century,  we  perceive  very 
clearly  that  these  natural  variations  have  been  of 
great  importance  in  differentiating  the  people.  There 
is  no  greater  contrast  in  any  country  between  neigh- 
boring people  of  the  same  blood  than  that  which  ex- 
ists between  the  so-called  mountaineers  of  eastern 
Kentucky,  who  occupy  the  soil  of  sandy  carbonifer- 
ous  beds,    and   those   who   dwell    in  the  rich   o-rass 


244  NATURE   AND   MAN   IN  AMERICA. 

country  of  the  central  district  of  the  Commonwealth. 
The  fertile  soil  of  the  limestone  region  has  given 
ahundant  wealth  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  region; 
wealth  has  brought  culture  and  all  the  circumstances 
of  a  high  civilization.  The  sandy  soil  giving  little 
to  tillage,  the  people  have  remained  poor ;  their  con- 
tacts with  the  world  have  been  slight,  and  they  yet 
abide  by  their  customs  and  intellectual  development 
in  the  conditions  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  go  one  step  farther,  and  to 
note  the  effect  of  these  diversities  induced  by  differ- 
ences of  soil.  When,  in  1861,  it  was  to  be  deter- 
mined whether  Kentucky  should  go  with  the  South 
or  North,  the  question  turned  in  the  main  on  the 
occupations  of  the  population.  Where  the  soils  were 
rich,  the  plantation  system  was  possible,  the  slave 
element  was  large,  and  in  general  the  voice  of  the 
people  was  for  union  with  the  South.  Where  the 
soils  were  thin,  the  people  had  no  interest  in  slavery, 
for  they  owned  no  negroes.  Old  frictions  with  the 
slave-holding  portions  of  the  State  existed,  and  con- 
sequently the  people  of  this  sterile  land  were  gener- 
ally devoted  to  the  Union.  A  soil-map  of  Kentucky 
would  in  a  rude  way  serve  as  a  chart  of  the  politics 
of  the  people  in  this  crisis  in  the  nation's  history. 
If  Kentucky  possessed  a  soil  altogether  derived  from 
limestone,  there  is  no  question  but  that  it  would 
have  cast  in  its  lot  with  the  South. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  Ohio  valley  have 
a    somewhat   sins^ular   distribution.      From   western 


NATUEE   AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  245 

Alabama  around  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Ohio  in 
Pennsylvania,  we  have  a  continuous  belt  of  country 
abounding  in  coal  and  iron.  Nowhere  in  the  world, 
so  far  as  it  has  been  explored,  is  there  any  region  of 
equal  extent  where  these  tw^o  substances,  both  of  the 
first  interest  to  man,  each  requiring  the  other  for  its 
most  important  uses,  are  geographically  so  united. 
In  the  western  part  of  the  Ohio  valley,  and  sepa- 
rated from  this  eastern  and  southern  section  by  a 
wide  interval  of  fertile  lands,  lies  the  western  coal- 
field, extending  from  central  Kentucky  to  central 
Indiana  and  Illinois.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  area  of 
the  Ohio  valley  has  a  more  perfect  association  of  fuel 
and  iron  resources  along  with  those  which  are  afforded 
by  a  fertile  soil  than  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

In  addition  to  the  supply  of  energy  contained  in 
the  coal-beds  tributary  to  this  district,  there  are  two 
other  sources  of  power  accessible  to  the  inhabitants 
of  this  valley,  —  petroleum  and  natural  gas.  The 
deposits  of  petroleum  appear  to  be  in  the  main 
limited  to  a  field  occupying  a  portion  of  western 
Pennsylvania,  western  Virginia,  and  eastern  Ohio, 
and  to  another  smaller  and  less  important  district  on 
the  waters  of  the  Cumberland  River  near  the  point 
where  it  crosses  the  division  between  Kentucky  and 
Tenne-ssee.  Although  the  quantity  of  petroleum  ac- 
cessible at  any  one  point  in  this  valley  appears  to  be 
rather  less  than  that  which  can  be  obtained  in  the 
famous  Caspian  or  Baiku  field,  the  district  is  prob- 
ably, all  things  considered,  the  most  extensive  source 


246  NATURE  AND  MAN  IX  AIVIERICA. 

of  supply  of  this  substance  which  the  world  is  likely 
to  afford.  The  natural  gas  of  the  Ohio  valley  ap- 
pears to  be  far  more  considerable  in  quantity  than 
that  contained  within  any  other  equal  area.  Thus 
in  this  district  we  have  three  known  sources  of  valu- 
able subterranean  energy,  — coal,  petroleum,  and 
natural  gas,  —  in  more  advantageous  conditions,  as 
regards  quantity  and  nearness  to  fertile  agricultural 
areas,  than  in  any  other  region  of  the  world. 

We  thus  see  that  the  Ohio  group  of  States  has, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  its  resources,  singular  ad- 
vantages over  an}^  other  part  of  the  continent  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  vast  population  engaged  in  indus- 
tries, both  those  of  the  soil  and  those  of  the  shop. 
Within  a  century  the  area  occupied  by  these  States 
is  likely  to  contain  a  larger  population  than  that 
which  now  exists  in  all  English-speaking  countries. 
Although  this  population  is  destined  to  be  to  a  great 
extent  engaged  in  mining  and  manufacturing,  there 
is  room  in  this  region  for  an  agricultural  people  ex- 
ceeding in  numbers  the  present  population  of  the 
United  States;  for,  as  before  remarked,  there  is 
hardly  any  untillable  land  in  its  area,  and  except  for 
the  limitations  which  the  necessary  preservation  of 
the  forests  put  upon  the  extension  of  the  tilled  fields, 
ninety-nine  hundredths  of  its  area  can  be  won  to 
husbandry. 

There  remains,  in  the  part  of  the  continent  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  another  interesting  district,  which 
constitutes  a  singular  physiographic  unit.     It  is  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  247 

basin  of  the  Laurentian  lakes,  commonly  known  as 
the  great  lakes  of  North  America.  In  this  great 
district  of  inland  waters  we  have  an  area  situated  so 
far  north  that  the  rigors  of  the  climate  limit  the 
operations  of  agriculture  to  less  than  half  of  the 
year.  The  soils  are  throughout  glacial  in  their 
character,  of  moderate  fertility,  but  more  enduring 
to  tillage  than  those  which  lie  to  the  south  of  the 
glaciated  country.  This  district  includes  the  whole 
of  the  Canadian  provinces  of  Quebec  and  Ontario, 
the  northern  part  of  Ohio,  the  western  portion  of 
New  York,  the  whole  of  Michigan,  a  small  part  of 
the  northern  sections  of  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  a 
portion  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  Although  the 
northerly  site  of  this  area  gives  it  a  short  season  for 
the  growth  of  plants,  the  region  near  the  lakes  has 
the  climate  somewhat  modified  by  these  great  sur- 
faces of  water  during  the  time  when  they  are  not 
locked  in  frost.  The  northern  portion  of  this  area 
—  nearly  the  whole  of  the  region  north  of  the  great 
lakes,  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  Michigan  pe- 
ninsula—  is  mountain-built,  having  been  subjected 
to  the  disturbances  attendant  on  the  formation  and 
growth  of  the  Laurentian  system.  The  elevations 
have,  however,  a  small  relief.  In  the  Canadian  sec- 
tion nearly  if  not  quite  one  half  the  surface  is  barren 
or  too  infertile  for  tillage  in  the  present  state  of  our 
agriculture;  while  perhaps  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
district  south  of  the  great  lakes  is  covered  by  tilled 
fields  or  luxuriant  forests.     The  soils  and  the  cli- 


248  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

mate  afford,  on  the  whole,  as  favorable  conditions 
for  farming  as  are  found  in  the  Scandinavian  penin- 
sula and  the  other  regions  about  the  Baltic  which 
have  been  the  birthplace  of  great  peoples. 

The  mineral  productions  of  this  area  are  extremely 
varied.  Coal  of  valuable  quality  does  not  exist 
within  its  limits.  There  is  a  considerable  area  of 
carboniferous  rocks  in  Michigan,  but  they  have  as 
yet  given  little  promise  of  important  contributions  of 
fuel.  Iron,  copper,  silver,  and  the  phosphates  of 
lime  and  salt  are  the  geological  staples  of  this  region. 
All  these  substances,  both  as  regards  the  mass  of  the 
deposits  and  their  purity,  appear  to  have  in  this 
region  a  pre-eminence  among  all  the  fields  of  this 
continent.  The  distribution  of  these  resources  of 
the  under  earth  and  the  variations  of  climate  in  this 
continental  Mediterranean  district,  provide  an  ample 
basis  for  a  great  differentiation  in  the  population. 
Thus  western  New  York  and  the  northern  border 
of  the  Ohio  States  which  face  the  great  lakes  are 
destined  to  be  agricultural  communities,  with  a  cer- 
tain share  of  manufacturing  industry.  These  parts 
of  this  field  are  not  to  be  the  seats  of  mining.  The 
same  is  true  of  southern  Michigan  and  southern 
Wisconsin.  The  region  about  Lake  Superior,  owing 
to  the  sterility  of  its  soils  and  the  rigor  of  its  cli- 
mate, is  not  likely  to  be  the  seat  of  a  considerable 
agriculture  or  of  much  manufacturing.  It  is  evi- 
dently destined  to  be  a  region  engaged  in  mining  and 
ixv  timber  culture. 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  249 

The  foregoing  inadequate  glance  at  the  conditions 
of  North  America,  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south 
of  the  region  which  is  sterilized  by  cold,  shows  us 
that  despite  the  generally  consolidated  character  of 
its  geography,  the  variations  of  the  soil,  of  climate, 
and  of  the  under-earth  resources  are  such  as  to  in- 
sure the  profound  diversifying  influences  which  come 
to  man  from  his  occupations.  This  measure  of  diver- 
sity will  increase  with  each  step  in  the  advance  of 
civilization. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Section  of  North  America  west  of  the  Mississippi.  —  Division  into  Sections 
as  determined  by  Rainfall.  —  Aridity  of  the  District;  probable  Future.  — 
Central  District  of  Canada. — Region  of  the  Red  River;  Condition  of 
Climate;  Fitness  for  the  Use  of  European  Settlers. — Rocky  Moun- 
tain District;  Effect  of  Cordilleran  Barrier.  —  Condition  of  Cordilleran 
District  in  northern  Mexico;  within  the  United  States;  Form  of  the 
Mountains;  Recent  Change  in  the  Rainfall;  Character  of  Soil;  Variation 
in  Climate.  —  Mining  Industry  of  Cordilleran  District;  Variety  of  Re- 
sources ;  Fitness  of  Region  for  Aryan  Race.  —  Pacific  Coast  District ; 
Division  into  Three  Areas.  —  Section  of  southern  California.  —  Relation 
of  Mining  and  Tillage  Fields.  — District  of  Oregon;  Mineral  Resources; 
Soil;  Climate;  Fitness  for  Aryan  Race.  —  Alaskan  District.  —  Effect  of 
American  Conditions  on  the  Life  of  Europeans  ;  on  Africans.  —  Evidence 
of  Longevity  of  Europeans;  from  Surger}^;  from  Field  Sports;  from 
Measurements. — Endurance  of  Soldiers  in  Civil  War.  —  Effect  of  Amer- 
ican Climate  on  Negroes.  —  Conclusion. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  section  of  English 
North  America  which  lies  to  the  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  • —  a  region  where  the  under-structnre, 
the  topography,  and  to  a  great  extent  the  physio- 
graphic conditions  which  affect  the  advance  of 
man  are  determined  by  the  Cordilleran  system  of 
mountains. 

First,  let  us  note  the  fact  that  this  western  section 
of  the  continent,  at  least  the  part  of  it  which  is  south 
of  the  Canadian  region,  is  generally  characterized  by 
a  scanty  rainfall.  Only  on  the  Pacific  coast  north 
of  California  do  we  find  anything  like  the  annual 
share  of  moisture  which  comes  to  the  earth  in  the 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  251 

regions  east  of  the  Mississippi.  East  of  the  Missis- 
sippi the  annual  supply  of  rain  amounts  on  the  aver- 
age to  about  fifty  inches,  —  a  share  of  precipitation 
probably  unsurpassed  in  any  equally  extensive  area 
in  the  same  latitude,  unless  it  be  in  China.  More- 
over, the  seasonal  distribution  of  rain  in  the  part  of 
North  America  east  of  the  Mississippi  is,  on  the 
whole,  favorable  to  the  interests  of  agriculture.  The 
greater  part  of  the  annual  fall,  it  is  true,  takes  place 
in  the  winter  half  of  the  year,  when  it  is  of  the  least 
value  to  vegetation ;  still,  almost  all  the  territory  is 
entitled,  by  the  regimen  of  the  air,  to  receive  abun- 
dant showers  during  the  growing  season. 

West  of  the  Mississippi  the  average  rainfall,  though 
not  yet  well  determined,  probably  does  not  exceed 
twenty  inches,  and  may  in  the  end  prove  even  less 
in  quantity.  Moreover,  in  this  section  the  rain  is  ill 
distributed;  the  greater  part  falls  in  the  time  be- 
tween the  first  of  January  and  the  first  of  May,  the 
summer  and  autumn  being,  in  a  large  part  of  the  area, 
times  of  continued  drought.  From  the  Mississippi 
River  westward  this  diminution  of  the  rainfall  goes 
on  rapidly  as  we  approach  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
The  most  arid  section  lies  w^ithin  the  mountainous 
belt ;  on  the  western  borders  of  that  district  we  have 
a  narrow  strip  of  country  extending  from  southern 
California,  widening  to  the  north,  wherein  the  rain- 
fall is  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  a  vigorous  vegeta- 
tion. In  the  mountain  districts  local  circumstances 
cause  the  rainfall  to  vary  greatly  in  amount.     There 


252  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

are  considerable  territories  tolerably  well  provided 
with  rain,  but  as  a  whole  the  region  is  arid. 

The  trans-Mississippian  portion  of  North  America 
is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  economic  interests, 
divided  into  seyeral  distinct  sections.  On  the  east 
we  have  a  strip  of  country  including  eastern  Nebraska, 
Iowa,  Missouri,  eastern  Kansas,  Arkansas,  and  east- 
ern Texas.  In  this  section  the  annual  rainfall  is 
sufficient  to  promote  the  development  of  grain  and 
the  other  staples  appropriate  to  the  soil  and  tempera- 
ture. Tliroughout  this  belt  the  surface  is,  except  in 
the  Ozark  district  of  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  substan- 
tially imaffected  by  mountain-building  forces.  The 
whole  of  the  area  affords  excellent  soils.  This  sec- 
tion is  in  the  main  fitted  for  agriculture.  There  are, 
however,  at  several  points,  as  in  the  lead  district  of 
Iowa,  the  lead  and  zinc  country  of  Missouri,  the  iron 
district  of  the  Ozark,  considerable  sources  of  mineral 
wealth.  Throughout  this  section  of  States  bordering 
upon  the  Mississippi,  but  west  of  its  line,  the  cli- 
matal  conditions  are  apparently  favorable  to  the 
development  of  our  race;  for  though  the  summers 
are,  in  the  southern  section  of  this  district,  extremely 
hot,  the  winter  is  sharp  enough  to  maintain  the  phys- 
ical energy  of  the  people. 

West  of  the  country  just  considered,  and  thence  to 
the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Cordilleras,  we  have  a 
section  where  the  diminished  rainfall  renders  ordi- 
nary agriculture  unprofitable.  Now  and  then  a  sea- 
son favors  the  tillage  of  grain  over  the  most  of  this 


NATURE  AND  MAX  IN  AMERICA.  253 

vast  expanse ;  but  the  annual  supply  of  water  varies 
too  much  to  make  agriculture  trustworthy.  Along 
the  streams  irrigation  is  possible,  and  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  land  may  be  made  fertile  by  this  expedi- 
ent. Still,  after  all  such  engineering  works  are 
constructed,  at  least  nine  tenths  of  the  surface  will 
remain  unsuited  to  ordinary  husbandry.  Its  only  use 
will  be  for  the  pasturage  of  herds. 

A  great  portion  of  this  Cordilleran  Piedmont  dis- 
trict is  destitute  of  mountain  ranges.  The  Black 
Hills  form  a  curious  outlier  on  the  north,  and  one 
or  two  slight  disturbances  have  affected  other  parts  of 
the  field.  The  result  is  that  no  important  mineral 
resources  are  as  yet  known  in  this  country,  except  in 
the  detached  mountain  mass  of  the  Black  Hills. 

The  facts  above  stated  make  it  plain  that  this  great 
section  of  the  continent  has  a  limited  future,  save  by 
a  change  of  climate  which  it  is  unreasonable  to  ex- 
pect ;  and  we  fail  to  see  how  it  can  ever  be  made  to 
afford  a  dwelling-place  for  large  bodies. of  people. 
The  absence  of  fuel,  of  timber,  and  water  powers 
excludes  manufactures.  The  dryness  renders  exten- 
sive agriculture  impossible,  and  there  remains  only 
the  chance  of  the  scanty  industry  which  comes  with 
a  pastoral  life. 

North  of  the  above-described  section,  within  the 
limits  of  Canada,  and  in  the  drainage  area  where 
the  waters  flow  toward  the  North  Pole,  we  have  a 
large  territory  in  the  Saskatchewan,  the  Red  River, 
(vnd  the  other  valleys,  inclucling  an  area  of  about  one 


254  NATUKE  AND  MAN  IN  AMEEICA. 

hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles,  where  the 
rainfall  is  considerably  greater  than  it  is  in  the  Pied- 
mont district  of  the  southern  Cordilleras  of  North 
America.  In  this  section  the  surface  of  the  country 
is  more  diversified ;  it  contains  a  great  many  lakes ; 
the  larger  rainfall  is  marked  by  the  greater  number 
and  size  of  the  rivers,  and  there  is  a  brief  season  of 
growth  in  which  the  smaller  grains  and  root-crops 
prosper  exceedingly.  Although  the  surface  of  the 
country  is  generally  level,  the  rocks  are  sufficiently 
disturbed  to  reveal  a  variety  of  mineral  resources, 
the  value  of  which  is  not  as  yet  even  approximately 
known.  There  is  no  question  that  this  Hudson  Bay 
area,  as  we  may  term  it  because  its  waters  drain  into 
that  basin,  is  in  many  ways  of  agricultural  impor- 
tance. As  before  remarked,  it  is  exceedingly  well 
fitted  for  the  growth  of  certain  staples,  —  the  smaller 
grains.  Unfortunately,  the  region  is  too  far  north 
for  the  extensive  growth  of  Indian  corn.  Moreover, 
the  length  and  severity  of  the  winters  make  it  too 
cold  to  profit  by  the  rearing  of  horned  cattle  or  of 
sheep.  At  present  the  cultivation  of  small  grains 
secures  this  section  a  fair  measure  of  prosperity.  It 
is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  this  is  but  a  temporary 
success,  for  the  reason  that  all  the  wheat-fields  in  the 
central  part  of  the  continent  are  prone  to  rapid  ex- 
haustion from  the  rude  tillage  to  which  they  are  sub- 
jected. When  the  primary  fertility  of  the  ground  is 
exhausted,  it  is  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  mixed 
farming,  to  artificial  fertilizers,  and  other  expedients 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  255 

which  are  not  likely  to  prove  profitable  in  this  high 
northern  realm,  where  the  population  must  mainly 
depend  on  one  class  of  crops. 

So  far  as  the  matter  of  climate  is  concerned,  this 
region  appears  suitable  to  the  people  derived  from 
the  more  northern  countries  in  Europe.  Scots, 
English,  North  Germans,  and  Scandinavians  appear 
to  be  well  accommodated  by  their  bodily  habits  to 
the  rigors  of  the  climate.  There  remains,  however, 
the  fact,  that  for  nearly  one  half  the  year  work  in  the 
fields  of  this  district  is  impossible,  and  this  in  a 
purely  agricultural  country  is  a  grave  economic  dis- 
advantage. Therefore,  despite  the  present  success  of 
this  high  northern  settlement,  it  seems  likely  that  it 
is  in  the  end  to  become  a  country  of  the  second  order, 
in  which,  though  the  population  may  maintain  itself 
and  attain  a  certain  diversity,  the  fullest  develop- 
ment of  life  will  not  be  secured  because  of  the  unva- 
ried nature  of  the  industries. 

We  turn  next  to  the  territories  contained  within 
the  vast  area  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  extending 
from  the  Western  pastoral  lands  to  the  border  dis- 
trict, which  lies  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean.  For  nearly 
two  and  a  half  centuries  after  the  advent  of  the 
English  settlers  upon  our  shores  the  Cordilleran 
region  remained  a  practically  impassable  barrier 
between  the  settlements  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
Mississippi  valley  and  the  western  sea.  For  two 
hundred  years  of  this  period  the  idea  that  this  great 
natural  barrier  to  commerce  would  ever  be  broken 


256  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

down  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  into  the  minds 
of  our  people.  Even  after  California  was  settled  and 
the  prospective  importance  of  the  group  of  States  on 
the  Pacific  coast  became  evident,  few  dared  to  hope 
that  the  great  American  desert  and  the  mj^sterious 
mountains  which  lay  beyond  it  would  ever  be  made 
as  readily  passable  as  the  Alleghanies.  Nothing 
shows  so  well  the  swift  advance  of  man's  control 
over  terrestrial  conditions  within  the  lifetime  of  our 
generation  as  the  speed  with  which  these  barriers 
have  been  overcome.  The  journey  from  New  York 
or  Boston  to  San  Francisco  is  to  us  a  much  less 
serious  undertaking  than  it  was  to  our  fathers  to  go 
from  the  sea-coast  to  the  Ohio  valley. 

In  northern  Mexico,  and  thence  northward  to  the 
farthest  point  where  the  Cordilleras  have  been  ex- 
plored, the  Cordilleran  mountain  district  has  an 
average  width  of  about  one  thousand  miles.  The 
topogTaphy  of  this  region  differs  considerably  from 
that  of  most  other  important  mountain  ranges.  In  the 
first  place,  the  mountains  proper  rest  upon  a  very  ele- 
vated pedestal,  so  that  the  greater  valleys  and  enclosed 
table-lands  often  have  a  height  of  six  or  eight  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  This  feature 
causes  the  climate  of  the  region  to  be  generally 
more  rigorous  than  its  latitude  alone  would  cause  it 
to  be.  The  form  of  the  mountains  gives  a  curious 
type  to  the  topography.  The  predominant  ranges 
extend  in  a  general  north  and  south  direction,  as  do 
those  of  the  Appalachian  system;  but  in  the  Rocky 


NATUEE  A^D  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  257 

Moiuitains  we  have  a  feature  unobserved  in  the 
ApiDalachian  elevations,  in  that  there  are  some 
subordinate  ridges  having  a  general  east  and  west 
course.  The  consequence  is  that  the  Cordilleran 
district  contains  many  extensive  elevated  valleys, 
great  surfaces  sometimes  of  tolerably  level  floors  of 
many  thousand  square  miles  in  extent.  Striking 
examples  of  these  enclosed  areas  are  found  in  the 
well-known  parks  of  Colorado. 

In  the  last  glacial  period,  when  the  rainfall  of  this 
country  was  far  greater  than  at  present,  this  system  of 
mountains  was  by  its  condition  calculated  to  afford 
a  great  number  of  isolated  areas  having  a  high 
order  of  fertility,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it 
had  great  lakes  in  many  of  its  basins,  water  areas 
rivalling  the  Laurentian  fresh-water  seas  in  extent. 
The  Rocky  Mountains  were  probably  at  that  time 
a  verdant  country,  and  would  have  been  wonder- 
fully well  suited  to  the  uses  of  man.  At  present, 
however,  no  considerable  portion  of  this  region  is 
fitted  for  agriculture,  save  where  it  is  artificially 
irrigated. 

Although  a  large  part  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
section  consists  of  mountainous  peaks,  probably 
nearly  one  third  the  total  area  is  well  covered  by 
soil  which,  owing  to  the  fact  that  its  resources  have 
not  been  drained  by  vegetation,  is  of  exceeding  fer- 
tility. The  researches  of  the  United  States  Geolog- 
ical Survey  have  made  it  probable  that  over  a  hundred 
thousand  square  miles  of  this  Cordilleran  area  can 

17 


258  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

be  won  to  tillage  by  storing  the  winter  rains  in  con- 
venient reservoirs  and  using  the  husbanded  waters 
for  irrigation.  The  Mormons  have  proved  in  a 
remarkable  way  the  success  which  attends  the  appli- 
cation of  water  to  this  soil,  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  in  all  the  important  valleys  of  this 
country  there  will  be  extensive  areas  of  land  in  this 
way  won  to  agriculture.  The  irrigated  lands  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  have  very  great  fertility,  and  are 
singularly  enduring  to  tillage.  We  may  fairly  as- 
sume the  arable  value  of  these  redeemable  soils  to 
be  at  least  three  times  as  great  as  that  afforded  by 
the  State  of  Illinois. 

Owing  to  the  great  north  and  south  extent  of  this 
Cordilleran  system,  we  have  within  it  a  vast  range 
of  climate,  so  that  the  products  of  the  artificially 
watered  fields  may  have  a  great  diversity.  Thus  in 
Montana  and  Idaho  the  natural  products  are  grains, 
grass,  and  the  other  ordinary  tillage  crops  of  this 
country ;  while  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  the  finer 
fruits  may  be  advantageously  cultivated.  There  can 
be  no  question  that  the  development  of  the  irrigation 
system  in  the  Eocky  Mountains  is  sure  to  give  rise 
to  a  great  many  definitely  limited  agricultural  popu- 
lations, each  separated  from  the  other  by  broad  fields 
of  arid  mountains,  which  here  and  there  will  afford 
employment  to  miners.  When  this  condition  of  cul- 
ture is  instituted,  we  shall  thus  have  a  singular  local- 
ization of  life  and  industry,  the  like  of  which  cannot 
exist  in  the  other  parts  of  the  continent,  where  there 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  259 

are  no  barriers  of  a  distinct  sort  between  the  several 
fertile  districts. 

The  principal  economic  basis  of  the  Cordi Reran  life 
must  for  many  centuries  rest  upon  the  mining  indus- 
try. The  geological  development  of  this  section  from 
the  time  the  rocks  were  laid  down  on  the  old  sea 
floors,  through  the  periods  when  they  were  deeply 
buried  and  finally  uplifted  by  the  mountain-foldings, 
has  served  to  prepare  a  vast  range  of  mineral  wealth 
by  nature  and  position  well  suited  to  the  needs  of 
man.  So  far  the  mining  industry  of  this  region  is 
in  the  main  turned  to  the  precious  metals,  and  we 
have  come  to  associate  the  idea  of  mining  in  this 
district  with  the  winning  of  gold  and  silver.  Al- 
though we  as  yet  know  comparatively  little  concern- 
ing the  under-earth  resources  of  this  district,  it  is 
evident  that  it  contains  a  wide  range  of  mineral 
products,  perhaps  a  greater  variety  than  is  known 
to  exist  in  any  other  country,  all  which  will,  with 
the  progress  of  exploration  and  the  cheapening  of 
mining  costs,  become  the  bases  of  industries.  Coal, 
iron,  and  various  alkaline  salts,  the  varieties  of  bitu- 
men, quicksilver,  lead,  zinc,  and  a  host  of  other  sub- 
stances which  have  a  place  in  our  industries,  exist,  in 
profitable  quantities  in  this  part  of  the  continent. 
The  fact  that  a  large  part  of  the  country  can  be  made 
fertile  by  irrigation,  will  afford  a  basis  for  food- 
supply  to  the  mining  population  without  the  distant 
carriage  now  required  to  bring  it  to  this  field. 

Great  as  is  the  measure  of  man's  dependence  on  the 


260  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

resources  of  the  under-earth  in  the  present  condition 
of  his  development,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  this  dependence  will  be  manifolded  within  a 
centur}^  from  our  day.  We  are  evidently  nowhere 
near  the  end  of  the  growth  in  our  mineral  industries. 
The  underground  workers  are  evidently  to  be,  in  the 
century  to  come,  about  as  nimierous  as  the  soil-tillers. 
Therefore,  in  our  forecast,  we  must  reckon  on  the 
development  of  a  body  of  population  in  the  regions 
of  the  Cordilleras  which  camiot  readily  be  imagined 
by  the  traveller  who  hastens  through  their  apparently 
sterile  wastes. 

The  general  climatal  conditions  of  this  section  give 
promise  that  it  will  afford  an  admirable  field  for  the 
nurture  of  northern  Europeans.  Although  new- 
comers in  the  highlands  generally  suffer  from  cer- 
tain maladies  attendant  on  the  change  of  station,  the 
children  born  in  the  region  seem  very  vigorous,  and 
the  acclimatized  man  finds  little  in  his.  surroundings 
to  contend  with.  The  generation  of  success  which 
our  race  has  secured  in  the  Cordilleras  is  a  matter  of 
no  small  interest  to  the  philosophical  student  of  our 
country.  Until  the  settlement  of  this  district  our 
Anglo-Saxon  folk  had  never  come  to  occupy  a  region 
of  highlands.  They  were  characteristically  low- 
landers  in  their  origin  and  history,  and  it  was  an 
open  question  whether  the  blood  would  prosper  in 
such  countries.  It  might  have  been  feared  that  it 
would  have  proved  unfit  for  mountain  life,  as  it  has 
proved  unfit  for  the  conditions  of  the  tropics.     The 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  261 

sight  of  vigorous  children,  and  young  men  and  women 
of  admirable  physique,  who  have  been  bred  in  the 
Cordilleran  highlands,  is  most  satisfactory  to  those 
who  have  a  keen  interest  in  the  future  of  our  race. 

On  the  Pacific  slope  we  have  three  areas  which  are 
open  to  our  race,  — the  Californian,  Oregonian,  and 
Alaskan. 

The  Californian  section,  extending  from  the  penin- 
sula of  southern  California  to  the  northern  borders  of 
California  proper,  is  a  region  of  mountain  valleys, 
lying  in  the  foot-hill  district  of  the  Cordilleran  prov- 
ince. In  this  section  the  rainfall  is  sufficient  to 
make  an  extensive  and  varied  agriculture  possible; 
the  climate  is  in  general  of  an  admirable  quality, 
and  the  soil,  which  occupies  perhaps  one  half  the 
total  area,  of  great  fertility.  Although  such  a  long 
shore,  the  coast  is  poorly  provided  with  harbors. 
The  fishing-groimds  so  far  as  known  are  not  very 
good,  and  the  maritime  life  is  likely  to  be  less  con- 
siderable than  along  any  equally  extended  part  of  the 
American  coast.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mining  dis- 
tricts are  blended  with  the  tillage  grounds  in  such  a 
manner  that  they  complement  each  other.  So  far  the 
under-earth  resources  which  hare  been  won  have  been 
mainly  those  of  the  precious  metals;  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe,  however,  that  in  the  future  the 
grosser  earth  products  are  to  play  a  very  large  part  in 
the  economic  success  of  the  district  and  in  the  diver- 
sification of  its  industries.  A  high  grade  of  agricul- 
ture,  exceedingly  varied   mining,    under   a    climate 


262  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

wJiicli  is  on  the  whole  favorable  in  its  effects  on  the 
human  frame,  give  promise  of  admirable  conditions 
for  the  development  of  a  powerful  people. 

The  district  of  Oregon,  including  the  western  por- 
tion of  that  State  and  the  neighboring  sections  of  the 
State  of  Washington,  as  well  as  a  considerable  part 
of  the  Frazer  River  district  on  the  north,  differs 
from  California  in  its  more  humid  climate,  the  pro- 
portionately wider  extent  of  its  tillage  grounds,  but 
most  markedly  in  the  great  extent  of  its  inland  mari- 
time waters,  the  abundance  of  its  harbors  and  straits, 
the  nurseries  of  seamen.  Here,  too,  the  fisheries 
attain  a  considerable  value,  so  that  there  is  a  great 
foundation  for  ocean  industries. 

The  mining  opportunities  of  the  Oregonian  district, 
though  perhaps  less  considerable  than  those  of  the 
central  Cordilleras  or  of  California,  are  still  great. 
In  this  section,  from  the  Frazer  River  to  the  Colum- 
bia, extending  back  two  or  three  hundred  miles  from 
the  sea,  we  have  the  most  varied  opportunities  for 
industries  which  are  afforded  by  any  portion  of  the 
American  continent.  Coal  is  possibly  abundant; 
there  are  numerous  excellent  water-powers,  and  the 
soil  within  the  limits  of  the  humid  area  is  very  fer- 
tile. The  forests  are  of  good  quality  and  of  great 
extent,  and  the  maritime  resources  appear  to  have  a 
value  unequalled  on  any  portion  of  the  American 
continent.  The  region  has  been  blessed  by  the  char- 
acter of  its  settlers,  for  they  have  been  derived  from 
the  most  vigorous  portion  of  the  race.     Taking  it  for 


NATURE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  263 

all  and  all,  the  physiographer  is  more  disposed  to 
foretell  greatness  for  this  section  than  for  any  other 
equally  extensive  area  on  the  western  border  of  the 
continent. 

North  of  the  Frazer  River,  and  thence  to  the 
Yukon,  we  have  a  district  which  by  its  physiography 
is  peculiarly  suited  for  a  maritime  life.  In  general 
the  character  of  the  surface,  soil,  and  climate  of  this 
region  more  clearly  resembles  the  Scandinavian 
peninsula  than  any  other  part  of  the  American  con- 
tinent; save  that  the  area  open  to  tillage  is  less 
considerable  than  in  Sweden  and  Norway,  the  gen- 
eral conditions  very  closely  reproduce  those  of  our 
race's  cradle-land.  In  this  field,  which  is  destined 
to  have  a  peculiar  place  in  the  development  of  our 
race,  agriculture  can  have  but  a  small  part  in  the 
activities  of  the  people.  Indeed,  with  the  develop- 
ment of  any  considerable  population,  they  must 
depend  upon  the  Oregonian  and  Californian  dis- 
tricts for  their  grain-supply.  Mining  and  fishing 
are  the  natural  occupations  for  the  populations  which 
are  to  be  developed  in  this  interesting  region. 

We  have  now  completed  our  rapid  survey  of  the 
physiographic  conditions  which  determine,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  the  development  of  our  race  on  the  conti- 
nent of  North  America.  It  will  be  observed  that  we 
have  excluded  from  consideration  the  whole  of  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America,  the  archipelago  of  the 
Antilles,  as  well  as  all  the  wide  expanse  of   lands 


264  NATUKE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

neighboring  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The  Arctic  re- 
gion does  not  greatly  interest  us,  because  in  the 
present  condition  of  its  climate  these  territories  are 
sterilized  by  cold,  and  are  therefore  without  the 
province  of  our  people.  The  southern  parts  of  the 
continent,  though  they  afford  regions  of  delightful 
climate  and  great  fertility,  are  also  unsuited  to  our 
race. 

Much  has  been  said  concerning  the  change  which 
the  European  population  has  undergone  in  the  course 
of  generations  from  life  upon  this  continent.  Many 
persons  have  maintained  that  the  British  portion  of 
our  population  has  been  greatly  altered  by  its  experi- 
ence on  the  continent  of  North  America.  There  has 
been  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  the  American  type  of 
man.  He  is  supposed  to  be  a  thinner  and  more 
angular  creature  than  his  cousins  of  the  parent  isle. 
It  has  been  held  that  tliough  quicker-witted,  readier 
to  fit  himself  to  circumstances,  he  has  less  solidity, 
less  endurance  than  his  ancestors  from  beyond  the 
seas.  There  can  be  no  question  that  our  climate, 
as  a  whole,  differs  considerably  from  the  conditions 
of  northern  Europe,  whence  our  race  came.  It  is 
generally  drier,  the  alternating  seasons  cooler  and 
hotter;  it  has,  because  of  its  relatively  unclouded 
sky,  more  sunlight.  There  is  a  natural  presumption 
that  such  variations  would  lead  to  considerable  alter- 
ation of  the  race ;  and  it  may  be  that  a  certain  meas- 
ure of  physical  change  has  taken  place. 

I  pi'opose  at  once  to  set  forth  the  reasons  which 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  265 

lead  me  to  the  opinion  that  the  change,  if  it  has 
occurred,  has  been  small  in  amount,  and  that  it  has 
not  injuriously  affected  the  qualities  of  the  people. 
It  is  worth  while,  at  the  outset  of  our  inquiry,  to  note 
the  evidence  which  serves  to  show  that  racial  quali- 
ties are  not  always  the  playthings  of  climate.  For- 
tunately for  our  argument  we  have  in  this  country 
some  striking  bits  of  evidence  on  this  point.  A  large 
part  of  our  population  is  of  African  descent,  mostly 
derived  from  the  Guinea  coast,  from  conditions  of 
climate  very  different  from  those  which  prevail  in 
the  Southern  States  of  North  America,  from  a  social 
as  well  as  a  physical  environment  differing  vastly 
from  what  exists  in  this  country.  The  African  race 
has  by  its  transplanting  undergone  a  great  change  in 
its  conditions.  The  negroes  have  been,  so  to  speak, 
on  the  average,  upon  this  soil  for  nigh  two  hundred 
years,  —  that  is,  they  are  as  Americans  about  as 
ancient  as  the  white  population.  So  far  as  we  can 
determine,  the  several  generations  of  this  race's  life 
in  a  totally  foreign  climate  have  not  affected  any  of 
their  original  peculiarities.  The  form,  color  of  the 
skin,  character  of  the  hair,  and  the  mental  qualities 
still  remain,  so  far  as  we  can  determine,  essentially 
unchanged,  except  so  far  as  the  blood  has  become 
mingled  with  that  of  the  whites.  This  stubbornness 
of  race  characters  is  all  too  little  appreciated.  We 
commonly  neglect  it  in  our  political  considerations, 
but  the  naturalist  cannot  omit  to  consider  it  in  his 
reckonings. 


266  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA 

Although  the  history  of  British  settlements  in 
torrid  regions  shows  that  the  population  of  northern 
Europe  is  not  suited  to  equatorial  conditions,  there  is 
nothing  in  the  experience  of  the  race  which  would 
lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  measure  of  change  under- 
gone in  passing  from  the  parent  country  to  the  por- 
tion of  the  United  States  north  of  the  region  about 
the  Mexican  Gulf  should  produce  any  marked  altera- 
tion in  the  racial  qualities.  It  is  a  difficult  matter 
to  compare  the  condition  of  two  bodies  of  people  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  sea.  We  cannot  trust  to  the 
impressions  of  travel,  for  no  man  can  retain  suffi- 
ciently accurate  memories  for  such  judgments.  Here 
and  there,  however,  we  find  certain  data  which  serve 
as  indices,  and  perhaps  afford  a  sufficient  basis  for  an 
opinion  on  this  point.  The  most  important  of  these 
facts  are  those  pertaining  to  longevity,  as  determined 
by  the  experience  of  life-insurance  companies,  those 
obtained  by  the  measurements  of  soldiers  and  sailors, 
and  the  endurance  which  such  men  exhibit  in  their 
callings.  The  results  of  surgical  operations  serve 
also  to  indicate  the  vitality  of  the  patient ;  and  the 
success  attained  in  games  of  a  sort  which  demand  a 
higher  measure  of  mental  and  bodily  vigor  shows 
something  concerning  the  essential  qualities  of  the 
men.  It  would  be  desirable  to  add  to  this  list  the 
measurement  derived  from  the  intellectual  accom- 
plishment of  the  two  countries,  the  success  in  vari- 
ous  walks  of  a  learned  and  imaginative  work. 
Unfortunately,    this    last    measurement    cannot    be 


NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA  267 

justly  applied,  for  the  reason  that  intellectual  ac- 
complishment depends  not  so  much  on  native  ability 
as  on  peculiar  circumstances  of  scholarly  environ- 
ment, on  education,  and  on  the  competence  of  the 
social  conditions  to  stimulate  the  mind  to  creative 
activities.  Shakspeares  or  Bacons  possibly  may  re- 
main with  their  genius  unknown  even  to  themselves, 
unless  there  is  the  stimulating  air  to  quicken  the 
native  spark  into  a  flame. 

Taking  the  conditions  which  I  have  mentioned  in 
the  order  in  which  they  are  presented,  we  note  in  the 
first  place  the  conviction  on  the  part  of  our  actuaries, 
—  the  computers  who  determine  the  measure  of  insur- 
ance risk  on  human  life,  — that  the  longevity  of  peo- 
ple in  America  is  at  least  as  great  as  in  Europe ;  and 
this  despite  the  fact  that  men's  lives  in  this  country 
are  more  seriously  taxed  than  in  the  Old  World.  We 
are  supposed  to  be  dying  of  overwork ;  but  the  fact 
is  that,  witnessed  by  the  duration  of  life  in  the  case 
of  men  who  have  appeared  on  the  records  of  insur- 
ance companies,  there  is  no  indication  that  the  term 
allowed  to  man  is  growing  less  in  this  country  than 
it  is  across  the  seas.  On  the  contrary,  the  evidence 
seems  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  American 
man  lives  longer  than  those  of  the  same  race  in  the 
Old  World. 

We  have  next  to  consider  the  endurance  of  Ameri- 
can bodies  to  grave  surgical  operations.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  in  this  country,  during  our  Civil  War, 
there  was  a  surprising  percentage  of  recoveries  from 


268  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN   AISIERICA. 

gunshot  and  other  lesions  incurred  in  battle.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  a  fact  that  in  no  European  campaigns  has 
the  percentage  of  recoveries  ever  been  as  great  as  it 
was  during  our  Civil  War.  Although  our  surgeons 
were  devoted,  and  the  noble  auxiliary  corps  of  nurses 
untiring  in  their  efforts  to  assuage  the  ills  of  battle, 
we  cannot,  it  seems  to  me,  attribute  this  remarkable 
proportion  of  survivals  to  remedial  measures  alone. 
Our  surgeons  and  physicians  employed  in  the  Civil 
War  were  not  in  general  so  well  instructed  as  those 
of  Europe,  and  the  means  of  succor  on  our  battle- 
fields were  probably  no  better  than  they  are  in  mod- 
ern days  in  the  Old  World.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
fact  of  ready  recovery  from  wounds  cannot  be  ex- 
plained save  by  the  supposition  that,  on  the  whole, 
the  American's  body  has  more  recuperative  power 
than  that  of  the  European.  It  may  possibly  be  that 
this  advantage  is  due  to  better  food,  less  average  con- 
sumption of  alcohol,  and  in  part  to  the  mental  activity 
and  courage  in  adversity  which  is  bred  in  our  men  by 
their  varied  activities.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  rude 
experience  of  war  seems  to  indicate  that  our  men  are 
as  enduring  as  any  from  other  countries.  The  proba- 
bility that  the  survival  from  wounds  is  due  in  part  to 
the  innate  condition  of  our  people  finds  some  support 
in  the  observations  of  Dr.  Brown- Sequard,  which  were 
communicated  to  me  personally  some  years  ago.  This 
gentleman,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  distinguished  phy- 
sician, as  well  as  a  physiologist  of  the  foremost  rank, 
having  a  place  among  the  famous   experts  in  this 


XATUEE   AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA.  269 

branch  of  science  who  are  now  the  glor}'  of  France. 
Dr.  Brown-Sequard  had  observed  that  American  ani- 
mals generally  —  not  only  men,  but  the  lower  mam- 
mals down  to  the  level  of  the  rabbit  —  are  much  more 
enduring  to  wounds  than  the  kindred  forms  of  the 
Old  World.  He  regarded  this  peculiar  resistance  to 
lesions  as  the  result  of  a  difference  in  the  nervous 
system,  which  made  the  creatures  of  this  country  feel 
the  effect  of  shock  much  less  considerably  than 
those  of  Europe.  He  stated  that  in  order  to  produce 
a  given  amount  of  destructive  effect  in  experimenting 
on  a  rabbit,  he  had  to  make  the  wounds  of  the  nervous 
system  much  more  severe  than  in  the  case  of  Euro- 
pean animals  upon  which  he  was  performing  the 
same  experiment.  In  his  opinion,  the  American  man 
had  something  of  the  same  element  of  resistance  to 
injuries.  * 

The  next  point  of  evidence  is  that  which  is  afforded 
by  the  record  of  field  sports  in  this  country  and  of 
Europe.  While  the  conditions  of  higher  intellectual 
accomplishment  differ  so  in  the  two  countries  as  to 
make  comparison  impossible,  such  amusements,  espe- 
cially those  which  require  at  once,  as  most  of  them 
do,  the  effective  co-operation  of  mind  and  body,  afford 
an  excellent  test  as  to  the  general  condition  of  our 
folk  in  comparison  with  our  English  kindred,  —  a 
comparison  which  includes  not  only  the  human  kind, 
but  extends  also  to  the  companions  of  man.  It  is 
now  pretty  well  established  that  the  xlmerican  horse 
is  as  good  as  any  of  his  kindred  in  the  world,  as  is 


270  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN   AMERICA. 

proved  not  only  by  the  race-course,  but  by  the  won- 
derful cavalry  marches  made  during  the  Civil  War,  — 
marches  in  which  the  sorest  part  of  the  contest  came 
upon  the  mounts  of  the  soldiery.  Our  ordinary  field- 
sports  have,  except  lacrosse,  been  derived  from  Eng- 
land ;  even  base-ball,  which  appears  as  a  distinc- 
tively American  game,  is  but  a  modification  of  an 
English  form  of  sport,  which  is  really  of  great 
antiquity.  The  sports  which  we  may  compare  in 
England  and  America  are  the  games  of  ball,  —  in 
which  base-ball,  because  of  our  customs,  must  take 
the  place  of  cricket,  and  foot-ball,  which  is  identical 
in  the  two  countries,  —  rifle-shooting,  rowing,  and 
the  ordinary  group  of  athletic  sports  in  which  single 
contestants  take  part.  We  may  add  to  this  the 
amusement  of  sailing,  wherein,  however,  the  quality 
^f  the  structure  as  well  as  the  nerve  and  skill  in 
management  play  an  important  part. 

It  is  not  worth  while  in  this  writing  to  make  an 
accurate  comparison  between  the  success  attained  in 
the  two  countries  in  these  several  out-door  amuse- 
ments. It  is  now  clear,  however,  that  in  all  of  them 
the  American  is  not  a  bit  behind  his  transatlantic 
cousins.  Most  of  the  people  have  the  same  spontane 
ous  interest  in  sports  as  their  forefathers,  and  they 
pursue  them  with  equal  success.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  do  so,  but  we  might  fairly  rest  the  conclusion  as  to 
the  undecayed  physical  vigor  of  our  population  on 
that  spontaneous  activity  of  mind  without  which 
games  are  impossible. 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA  271 

There  are,  however,  two  divisions  of  the  proof  to 
which  we  have  yet  to  attend.  Among  its  many 
beneficent  deeds  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com- 
mission, which  did  so  much  to  relieve  the  miseries 
of  our  Civil  War,  did  a  remarkable  service  to  anthro- 
pology by  measuring,  in  as  careful  a  manner  as  the 
condition  of  our  knowledge  at  the  time  permitted, 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  soldiers  of  the 
Federal  army. 

The  records  of  these  measurements  are  contained 
in  the  admirable  work  of  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  a  distin- 
guished astronomer,  who  collated  the  observations 
and  presented  them  in  a  great  volume.  Similar 
measurements  exist  which  present  us  with  the  physi- 
cal status  of  something  like  an  equally  large  number 
of  European  soldiers,  particularly  those  of  the  British 
army.  From  Dr.  Gould's  careful  discussion  of  these 
statistics,  it  appears  that  the  American  man  is  on 
the  whole  quite  as  well  developed  as  those  who  fill 
the  ranks  of  European  armies.  As  but  a  small  edi- 
tion of  Dr.  Gould's  book  was  printed,  and  as  it  is  not 
ordinarily  accessible  to  most  readers,  I  venture  to 
give  some  of  the  important  conclusions  which  I  derive 
from  it. 

From  these  records  it  appears  that  there  is  a  con- 
siderable difference  in  the  men  born  in  different  parts 
of  the  United  States.  Unfortunately  the  results  in- 
clude only  a  small  part  of  the  Southern  troops,  and 
for  various  reasons  these  measurements  are  less 
trustworthy  in  the  case  of  troops  from  those  fields. 


272  NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA 

The  measurements  appear  to  show  that  the  size  of 
man  increased,  in  a  general  way,  as  we  go  from  the 
seaboard  into  the  Mississippi  valley.  About  fifty 
thousand  men  who  w^ere  subjected  to  these  measure- 
ments were  from  the  States  of  West  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Tennessee.  It  is  a  fact  well  known  to 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  history  of  these 
Commonwealths  during  the  Civil  War,  that  the  Fed- 
eral army  did  not  receive  an  even  share  of  the  most 
vigorous  element  of  their  population;  those  grown 
upon  the  richest  soils  of  these  Commonwealths,  men 
from  the  blue -grass  district  regions  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  went  in  the  main  to  the  Confederate 
army,  for  the  reason  that  these  fertile  lands  were 
slave- holding  districts.  Despite  this  cause,  which 
doubtless  serves  somewhat  to  lower  the  average  meas- 
urements of  the  troops,  these  two  States  furnished 
about  the  best  developed  native  soldiers  who  appeared 
in  the  Federal  army.  This  last  point  is  of  much  im- 
portance, for  the  reason  that  the  white  population  of 
this  district  derived  almost  all  its  blood  from  Britain, 
in  perhaps  nearly  equal  measure  from  the  Scots  and 
from  the  dwellers  in  the  southern  portion  of  that 
island.  Moreover,  it  has  been  longer  upon  the  soil 
than  perhaps  any  other  part  of  the  American  English. 
New  England  has  been  so  far  affected  by  the  immigra- 
tion of  Irish  and  other  Europeans,  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  recruit  fifty  thousand  men  in  that  region 
with  so  small  an  admixture  of  other  than  British  blood 
as  was  secured  in  the  troops  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN   AMP:R1CA.  273 

and  the  neighboring  States.  The  admirable  develop- 
ment of  these  soldiers  has  completely  proved  that 
two  centuries  of  Americanizing  has  not  debilitated 
the  race. 

Last  of  all,  we  have  the  test  afforded  by  the  trials 
of  the  struggle  between  the  North  and  the  South.  War 
has  ever  been  the  rudest  and  most  effective  gauge  of 
certain  important  qualities.  The  actual  adyaiice  to 
which  living  beings  have  attained  has  been  in  large 
part  determined  by  the  measure  of  resistance  which 
creatures  have  been  enabled  to  make  against  adverse 
circumstances,  —  not  the  passive  inertia  of  inanimate 
things,  but  the  active  and  long- continued  contest  in 
which  all  the  latent  powers  are  applied  in  determined 
action.  The  military  struggles  of  men  are  but  an 
advanced  and  complicated  form  of  the  immemorial 
rivalry  of  lower  creatures,  out  of  which,  through  infi- 
nite pain,  infinite  good  has  been  won.  There  is  no 
more  searching  test  of  the  moral  and  physical  devel- 
opment of  a  people  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  a 
great  and  long- continued  civil  war.  That  such  a 
strife  affords  a  measure  of  the  physical  endurance, 
the  power  which  is  in  the  people  of  maintaining 
determinations,  is  manifest.  The  contact  of  armies 
in  the  field  gives,  moreover,  an  excellent  measure  as 
to  the  moral  state  of  the  people.  Nothing  so  tests  the 
firmness  with  which  the  motives  of  sympathy,  of  jus- 
tice, are  rooted  in  men  as  the  temptations  to  which 
campaigns  expose  them. 

It  is  hard,  in  our  ordinary  well-regulated  societies, 

18 


274  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

to  ascertain  how  far  men  are  held  to  right-doing  by 
the  machinery  of  the  law,  how  far  their  relations  to 
their  fellows  are  fixed  by  their  own  motives.  The 
ratio  of  compulsion  to  spontaneous  motives  becomes 
evident  when  the  men  of  the  State  are  marshalled  into 
armies.  This  test  was  made  thoroughgoing  by  the 
circumstances  of  our  Civil  War.  In  the  first  place, 
the  combatants  fought  for  more  ideal  issues  than  men 
commonly  do.  It  was  not  for  the  love  of  chieftains 
or  for  conquest,  but  for  theories  of  institutions,  of 
plans  for  States,  that  they  contended.  No  war  was 
ever  so  humanely  conducted  as  this.  There  were 
grievous  things  about  it,  —  all  war  is  a  succession  of 
griefs ;  but  the  conduct  of  the  armies  in  the  field  was 
more  humane  than  in  any  other  similar  campaigns 
which  the  world  has  known.  The  interests  of  women 
and  children  were  almost  invariably  considered.  The 
soldiers  born  upon  the  soil  generally  carried  the  civic 
sense,  the  order  of  peaceful  society,  with  them  in 
march  and  battle.  Good-nature  and  sympathy  were 
written  on  their  banners.  We  have  but  to  compare 
the  struggles  between  the  French  and  Spaniards  in 
Florida,  or  the  wars  between  the  American  colonies 
of  the  British  and  French,  to  see  how  humanized  our 
armies  were  under  circumstances  which  in  other 
lands  and  times  have  awakened  the  devil  in  men. 
The  issue  of  the  combat,  the  perfect  accord  and 
loving  humor  which  now  marks  those  who  met  on 
battlefields,  shows  this  in  the  clearest  possible  man- 
ner.    I  take  it  to  be  plain  that  the  Rebellion  proves 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA  275 

our  people  to  have  lost  nothing  in  the  moral  gains 
which  the  race  won  in  the  Old  World.  If  we  com- 
pare the  results  of  the  contest  with  the  chronic  condi- 
tions of  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
I  think  we  may  claim  that  we  have  gained  in  the 
moral  qualities  which  appear  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs. 

The  behavior  of  our  armies  in  the  field  shows 
clearly  that  the  combination  of  physical  vigor  and 
moral  earnestness  which  make  a  good  soldier  exist 
in  unsurpassed  measure  in  the  men  whose  ancestors 
dwelt  long  upon  the  American  soil. 

Some  years  ago  I  sought  carefully  to  find  a  body  of 
troops  whose  ancestors  had  been  for  many  genera- 
tions upon  our  soil,  and  whose  ranks  were  essentially 
unmixed  with  foreigners,  or  those  whose  forefathers 
had  been  but  a  short  time  upon  this  continent.  It 
proved  difficult  to  find  in  the  Northern  armies  any 
commands  which  served  the  needs  of  the  inquiry 
which  I  desired  to  make.  It  seemed  necessary  to 
consider  a  force  of  at  least  five  thousand  men  in  order 
to  avoid  the  risks  which  would  come  from  insufficient 
data.  In  our  Federal  army  it  was  the  custom  to  put 
in  the  same  brigade  regiments  from  different  dis- 
tricts, thus  commingling  commands  of  pure  Ameri- 
can blood  with  those  which  held  a  considerable 
percentage  of  foreigners,  or  men  of  foreign  parents. 
I  found  in  my  limited  inquiry  but  one  command 
which  satisfied  the  needs  of  the  investigation,  and 
this  was  the  First  Brigade  of  Kentucky  troops  in  the 


276  NATURE  AND   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 

rebel  army.  In  the  beginning  of  the  war  this  brigade 
was  recruited  mostly  in  the  slave-holding  district  of 
Kentucky,  its  ranks  being  filled  mainly  with  farmers' 
sons.  It  is  possible  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  men  in 
this  command  with  sufficient  exactitude  by  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  muster-rolls.  Almost  every  name  upon 
them  belongs  to  well-known  families  of  English 
stock,  mainly  derived  from  Virginia.  It  is  possible, 
in  a  similar  way,  to  prove  that  with  few  and  unim- 
portant exceptions,  these  soldiers  were  of  ancient 
American  lineage.  Speaking  generally,  we  may  say 
that  their  blood  had  been  upon  the  soil  for  a  century 
and  a  half ;  that  is,  they  were  about  live  generations 
removed  from  the  parent  country. 

When  first  recruited,  this  brigade  contained  about 
five  thousand  men.  From  the  beginning  it  proved  as 
trustworthy  a  body  of  infantry  as  ever  marched  or 
stood  in  the  line  of  battle.  Its  military  record  is 
too  long  and  too  varied  to  be  even  summarized  here. 
I  will  only  note  one  hundred  days  of  its  history  in  the 
closing  stages  of  its  service.  May  7,  1864,  this  bri- 
gade, then  in  the  army  of  General  Joseph  Johnston, 
marched  out  of  Dalton  eleven  hundred  and  forty 
strong,  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  retreat  upon 
Atlanta  before  the  army  of  Sherman.  In  the  subse- 
quent hundred  days,  or  until  September  1,  the  bri- 
gade was  almost  continuously  in  action  or  on  the 
march.  In  this  period  the  men  of  the  command 
received  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty  death  or  hospi- 
tal wounds,  the  dead  counted  as  wounds,  and  but  one 


NATURE  AND   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  277 

wound  being  counted  for  each  visitation  of  the  hospi- 
tal. At  the  end  of  this  time  there  were  less  than  fifty 
men  who  had  not  been  wounded  during  the  hundred 
days.  There  were  two  hundred  and  forty  men  left 
for  duty,  and  less  than  ten  men  deserted. 

A  search  into  the  history  of  warlike  exploits  has 
failed  to  show  me  any  endurance  to  the  worst  trials 
of  war  surpassing  this.  We  must  remember  that  the 
men  of  this  command  were  at  each  stage  of  their 
retreat  going  farther  from  their  firesides.  It  is  easy 
for  men  to  bear  great  trials  under  circumstances  of 
victory.  Soldiers  of  ordinary  goodness  will  stand 
several  defeats;  but  to  endure  the  despair  which  such 
adverse  conditions  l)ring  for  a  hundred  days  demands 
a  moral  and  physical  patience  which,  so  far  as  I  have 
learned,  has  never  been  excelled  in  any  other  army. 
I  doubt  not  that  as  satisfactory  evidence  can  be  ob- 
tained from  the  records  of  our  Northern  troops; 
indeed,  my  inquiries  have  clearly  indicated  that  if 
our  men  from  the  districts  settled  with  purely  Eng- 
lish blood  could  be  made  the  subject  of  careful  study, 
we  should  find  that  the  best  Federal  soldiers  were 
generally  as  good  as  these  Confederates. 

The  foregoing  considerations,  as  well  as  many 
other  points  which  cannot  be  traced  in  this  brief 
study  concerning  the  effects  of  climatal  and  social 
conditions  on  the  American  man,  have  satisfied  me 
—  as  I  think  they  will  satisfy  any  other  unprejudiced 
inquirer  —  that  our  race  is  safe  upon  this  continent ; 


278  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

that  we  need  have  no  apprehensions  concerning  the 
effect  of  the  existing  conditions  upon  its  development. 

We  may  safely  presume  that  the  climate  and  other 
features  of  our  continent,  with  perhaps  the  exception 
of  the  district  about  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the 
Arctic  country,  are  on  the  whole  as  well  fitted  for 
the  uses  of  northern  Europeans  as  any  part  of  the 
mother-country.  We  may  I'easonably  conclude  that 
it  suits  the  whole  Teutonic  branch  of  the  Aryan  race. 

As  to  the  Latin  peoples,  the  case  is  not  so  clear. 
The  Canadian  French  are  doubtless  in  the  main  de- 
scended from  the  people  of  northern  France.  It  is 
likely  that  a  large  part  of  their  blood  is  derived  from 
the  Northmen.  There  can  be  no  question  that,  with 
certain  limitations,  this  population  has  been  thor- 
oughly successful  on  American  soil.  The  fact  that 
they  speak  a  foreign  language  and  have  been  deprived 
of  education,  may  account  for  their  general  failure  to 
advance  in  the  intellectual  field.  They  are,  however, 
people  of  vigorous  minds  and  enduring  bodies.  They 
have  developed  a  fecundity  now  unparalleled  in 
France.  They  take  naturally  to  laborious  occupa- 
tions, which  is  a  proof  of  physical  vigor.  We  may 
therefore  consider  the  northern  Frenchman  as  well 
fitted  to  the  conditions  of  northern  America.  The 
Latin  peoples  about  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  have  not 
been  equally  successful.  The  upper  class  has  main- 
tained something  of  its  pristine  quality,  but  the 
peasant  has  not  taken  hold  on  the  soil  in  a  successful 
way.     How  much  of  this  failure  of  the  Spanish  and 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  279 

French  to  attain  a  high  development  in  the  region 
about  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Caribbean  is  due 
to  climate,  and  how  much  to  the  institution  of 
slavery,  or  to  their  intermixture  with  the  indigenous 
people,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

There  remains  one  important  inquiry  as  to  the 
effect  of  geographic  conditions  on  the  development 
of  races  from  beyond  the  sea  on  the  surface  within 
the  limits  of  North  America,  —  a  question  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  our  political  and  social  future. 
We  have  in  this  country  a  very  large  African  popula- 
tion. Within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  the 
numl)er  of  people  of  this  blood  probably  exceeds  that 
of  any  other  stock,  save  that  from  the  British  Isles. 
As  we  have  previously  .remarked,  this  race  on  the 
whole  appears  to  have  remained  substantiall}  un- 
changed by  the  conditions  of  the  new  field.  Intel- 
lectual contact  with  the  white  has  doubtless  led  to  a 
certain  development  in  the  general  status  of  the 
African,  but  except  so  far  as  his  blood  has  been 
mingled  with  that  of  Aryan  or  Indian  people,  the 
bodily  form,  and  in  general  the  moral  and  mental 
characteristics,  have  remained  substantially  what 
they  were  on  the  parent  continent  of  this  people. 
There  are  two  questions  concerning  this  race  which 
are  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  future  of  ^  our 
nation,  —  indeed,  to  that  of  all  our  own  people  in 
North  America.  The  first  concerns  the  natural 
fecundity  of  the  population,  their  rate  of  increase 


280  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

from  decade  to  decade;  and  the  second,  the  limita- 
tions which  climate  may  put  upon  the  extension  of 
the  folk. 

The  rate  of  increase  of  the  negro  has  not  yet  been 
ascertained.  During  the  conditions  of  slavery  a  sat- 
isfactory census  was  impossible.  The  slaves  were 
subject  to  taxation,  and  the  owners  had  a  sinister 
interest  in  reducing  the  numbers  which  were  given  to 
the  accounting  officers.  The  census  of  1870,  the  first 
taken  after  the  overthrow  of  slavery,  partly  inten- 
tionally or  by  neglect,  served  to  underestimate  the 
total  number  of  negroes.  The  next  accounting,  that 
of  1880,  was  careful,  and  doubtless  gave  us  the  first 
accurate  knowledge  as  to  the  ratio  of  this  element  of 
our  population  to  those  of  European  blood.  It  will 
not  be  until  we  obtain  returns  of  the  census  which 
has  just  been  taken,  that  we  shall  know  whether  the 
negro  is  more  or  less  prolific  than  the  white.  In 
case  it  should  appear  that  in  the  extreme  Southern 
States  the  negro  increases  in  a  greater  ratio  than  the 
whites,  the  regions  in  which  this  increase  is  marked 
have  a  doubtful  future  before  them;  for  unless  the 
black  population  can  be  quickly  lifted  to  a  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  plane  than  now  characterizes 
it,  those  parts  of  the  South  will  be  apt  to  relapse 
into  barbarism.  The  advance  of  the  negro  to  a  sat- 
isfactory grade  in  development  still  depends  upon  his 
remaining  in  close  contact  with  the  superior  race. 
If  he  increases  in  numbers  more  rapidly  than  the 
whites,  he  is  sure  to  create  massive  communities  of 


NATURE   AND  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  281 

his  own  stock,  in  which  there  can  be  no  certainty  as 
to  the  maintenance  of  our  race  motives. 

As  to  the  distribution  of  the  African  population  in 
his  country,  though  the  evidence  is  not  clear,  it 
seems  that  the  negro  is  not  likely,  in  the  immediate 
future  at  least,  to  extend  for  any  considerable  dis- 
tance beyond  the  limits  in  which  his  race  at  present 
is  fixed.  There  is  now  no  distinct  movement  of  the 
blacks  toward  the  North.  The  scanty  African  popu- 
lation in  the  old  non-slave-holding  States  has  mainly 
accumulated  in  the  cities,  and  would  probably  die  out 
were  it  not  for  the  occasional  accessions  it  receives 
from  the  South.  Unless  the  rate  of  increase  of  the 
negroes  should  be  so  great  as  to  crowd  them  from 
the  extreme  Southern  States,  we  may  be  pretty  sure 
that  this  population  will  remain  in  good  part  limited 
to  a  small  portion  of  our  country,  — to  a  region  which 
though  not  unfitted  for  the  occupation  of  our  race, 
is  the  most  undesirable  part  of  the  country  for  its 
development. 

Our  review  of  the  physiographic  conditions  which 
environ  our  race  on  this  continent  makes  it  tolerably 
plain  that  North  America  is  well  suited  for  the  devel- 
opment of  northern  Europeans.  We  may  dismiss  the 
fear  that  our  race  is  to  deteriorate  in  this  country. 
We  may  further  put  aside  the  notion  that  we  are  to 
be  a  massive,  unvaried  people,  destitute  of  those 
differences  which  by  their  reaction  bring  about  the 
advance  of  man.     It  is  true  that  the  continent  is  not 


282  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

divided  into  the  separate  areas  which  have  consti- 
tuted the  cradle-lands  of  the  Old  World;  but  it  is 
evident  that  the  wide  diversities  in  occupation  will 
institute  and  maintain  variations  in  the  character  of 
the  people  probably  in  time  to  be  as  great  as  those 
Avhich  in  the  more  natural  state  of  man  depended  on 
purely  geographic  conditions.  At  present,  while  the 
open  structure  of  our  social  and  economic  life  permits 
a  rapid  change  in  the  occupations  of  men,  the  effect 
of  industries  dependent  on  physiographic  conditions 
is  not  much  felt;  but  with  the  increase  and  consoli- 
dation of  our  population,  we  may  be  sure  that  voca- 
tions will  become  more  hereditary.  Men  will  follow 
the  occupations  of  the  plough,  the  mine,  or  the  mill 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  so  the  commu- 
nities will  receive  the  individualized  stamp  which 
comes  only  through  ancestral  habit. 

In  the  beginning  mankind  was  dependent  for 
culture  and  diffusion  mainly  upon  geographic  con- 
ditions. Each  tribe  was  environed  by  rigid  customs 
which  fended  off  its  neighbors.  The  movements 
were  necessarily  massive,  for  they  were  to  result  in 
displacements  of  pre-existing  peoples.  Therefore 
the  first  stages  of  man's  development  resemble,  as 
regards  the  conditions  of  increase  and  diffusion, 
those  of  his  lower  kindred  in  the  ranks  of  life ;  the 
progress  of  intellectual  capacity  has  given  to  certain 
races  a  larger  measure  of  control  over  their  circum- 
stances. Still,  even  in  our  own  centuries,  the  im- 
plantation of  our  race  in  new  lands  already  possessed 


NATURE  A^^D   MAN  IN  AMERICA.  283 

by  men  has  proved  a  task  of  exceeding  difficulty. 
The  would-be  colonists  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  America, 
found  something  of  the  difficulty  in  gaining  their 
foothold  which  stray  plants  or  animals  from  one  flora 
or  fauna  find  when  they  are  cast  within  a  foreign 
field.  Even  in  the  present  state  of  their  development 
the  most  advanced  races  of  men  are  limited  by  the 
climate,  and  can  only  dwell  where  the  larger  nature 
permits. 

For  all  that  we  can  foresee  of  the  future,  this 
dependence  of  man  upon  the  conditions  of  his  envi- 
ronment is  of  an  insuperable  nature.  The  good  he 
wins  he  secures  by  obedience  to  the  commands  of  his 
mother-earth.  Looking  back  over  the  history  of  life 
upon  the  earth's  surface,  the  physiographer  is  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  its  highest  estate  embodied  in 
the  moral  and  intellectual  qualities  of  man  has  been, 
in  the  main,  secured  by  the  geographic  variations 
which  have  slowly  developed  through  the  geological 
ages.  Thus  our  continents  and  seas  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  physical  accidents,  in  which  and  on  which 
organic  beings  have  found  an  ever-perilous  resting- 
place,  but  as  great  engines  operating  in  a  determined 
way  to  secure  the  advance  of  life. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Africa,  civilization  in ISIT 

primitive  races  of 167 

Africans,  effect  of  American  climate  on 265 

Agassiz,  A.,  on  relation  of  life  in  Antilles  and  Central  America  .     .     .  100 

Agassiz,  L.,  on  relation  of  North  American  and  European  life    ...  5 

view  of  fossils .  5 

Agriculture,  progressive  dependence  of  man  upon 212 

Air,  changes  in  constitution 132 

Alaskan  section 263 

.Alps,  condition  of  life  in 25 

American  continents,  contributions  of  domesticated  animals  and  plants 

from 175 

population,  changes  in 264 

evidence  from  Civil  War 268,  273 

longevity,  etc 266 

physical  condition 271 

Appalachian  Mountains,  effect  on  Civil  "War 210 

colonies 195 

distribution  of  slavery 209 

protection  they  afforded  against  Indians    .     .  205 

Aryans,  origin  of 163 

Atlantic  coast  shelf 77 

Atmosphere,  changes  in  constitution  of 132 

Australia,  conditions  of  life 14 

extinction  of  native  species  in 72 

measure  of  isolation 110 

I3iG  BoxE  Lick,  geological  evidence  from 185 

Buffalo,  effect  on  Indians 184 

California^  section 261 

Cambrian  shore  line  in  New  England 85 

Canada,  natural  union  with  United  States 220 

relation  of  products  to  those  of  United  States 218 


286  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Cape  Cod,  effect  on  marine  life 14 

Carboniferous  period,  theory  of  its  climate ll'J 

shore  line  in  New  England 86 

Carolinian  plain,  a  recently  elevated  sea  bottum 75 

Civilization,  dependence  on  environment 147 

Civil  War,  effect  of  Appalachian  mountains  on 210 

Climatal  changes,  how  induced 18 

range  of 135 

Climate  of  Carboniferous  Period,  theory  of 119 

effect  of  Japan  Current  on 143 

Colonies,  British,  local  differences  in 200 

condition  at  beginning  of  eighteenth  century 197 

European  in  North  America 188,  193 

effect  of  Appalachian  barrier  on 195 

commercial  growth  of  British 206 

conditions 199 

relative  conditions  in  North  America 194 

Comparison  of  form  of  North  America  and  Europe 9 

Continental  bench 82 

form,  effects  of  erosion  on 35 

growth,  relations  of  mountains  to 47,  60 

shelf,  origin  of  materials     ■ 79 

Continents,  condition  in  earlier  geological  times 112 

effect  of  disappearance      . 41 

individualization Ill 

on  marine  currents 129 

elastic  condition  of 96 

evidence  of  permanence  from  character  of  rocks  ....  72 

physical  histor}- 33 

proof  of  antiquity  from  organic  life 70 

stability 81 

subsidence  during  Glacial  times 97 

theory  of  formation 47 

Coral  reefs,  evidence  of  ancient  shore  lines 74 

Cordilleran  district 252 

Croll,  Dr.  James,  theory  of  Glacial  periods  .- 119 

Cuvier,  view  of  fossils 4 

Dead  Seas,  origin  of  saline  material 38 

Deep  seas,  conditions  of  life  in 28 

Devonian  black  shale,  relation  to  Gulf  Stream 73 


English  colonies  in  North  America 188, 193 

Environment,  effects  on  man 147 

Erosion,  effects  on  continental  form 35 

European  population  in  America,  modifications  of  condition  ....    264 


INDEX.  287 

PAGE 

Europe,  compared  with  Asia .  157 

cradle  of  nations 156 

general  description 151 

Evolution  of  life,  conditions  of  the  process 108 

Florida,  former  extensive  elevation 101 

general  character 235 

French  colonies  in  North  America .  192 

Gay  Head,  Mass.,  series  of  rocks,  evidence  from 88 

Geographical  barriers,  absence  in  North  America 214 

changes,  effect  on  life 16 

rapidity  of 131 

Glacial  Period,  conditions  of 90 

migration  of  plants  after 128 

possible  cause 143 

range  of  ice 140 

subsidence  of  continents  during   ....'....  97 

periods,  theory  of  Dr.  Croll     ...          119 

Great  Britain,  isolation 153 

effects  of 159 

Gulf  District 239 

of  Mexico,  recent  depression  of  northern  shore 101 

remnant  of  continental  sea 22 

Stream,  agency  in  formation  of  Devonian  black  shales    ....  73 

effect  on  north  Atlantic 20 

recent  changes  in 141 

Hooke,  view  of  fossils 3 

Iceland,  effects  of  isolation 160 

Indians,  age  of  mound  builders 181 

effect  of  buffalo  on 184 

habit  of  burning  prairies 184,  186 

of  North  America,  social  condition  of 172 

Isthmuses,  effect  on  life          15 

Japan  Current,  possible  effect  on  American  climate 143 

effects  of  isolation 160 

Knro  Sivo,  or  -Japan  Current,  possible  effect  on  American  climate  .     .  143 

Lake  district 246 

Lemming,  migrations 162 

Life,  conditions  of  advance  on  land 46 


288  INDEX.  . 

PAGE        " 

Life,  conditions  of,  in  Alps 25 

Australia       14 

deep  seas , 28 

of  evolution ...  108 

in  Mississippi  vallej' 24 

of  passage  from  sea  to  land  of 42 

in  Polar  regions 30 

effect  of  continental  development  on 127 

geological  changes  on IG 

isthmuses  on .  15 

migrations  on 18 

mountains  on 23 

evidence  indicating  antiquity  of  continents  from 70 

marine,  effect  of  Cape  Cod  on 14 

of  West  India  Islands,  comparison  with  that  of  East  Indies     .     .  100 

relation  in  Antilles  and  Central  America,  Agassiz,  A.,  on  .     .     .  100 

to  fofni  of  continent 13 

of  that  of  Xorth  America  and  Europe 5 

tropical  conditions  to 145 

Massachusetts,  ancient  shore  lines  in ■ 84 

Mexico^  relations  to  United  States 223 

Migrations  of  animals 162 

faunfe  and  flora* 109 

effect  on  life 18 

Mineral  wealth,  position  in  North  America 212 

progressive  dependence  of  man  upon 212 

INIississippi  valley,  condition  of  life  in 24 

effect  of  access  to,  on  shipping  interests     ....  200 

first  settlement 206 

Mountains,  absent  on  sea  floor 49 

cause 54 

effect  on  life 2-3 

evidence  of  slow  growth 68 

pedestals 52 

process  of  growth  in  Europe 125 

relation  to  continental  growth 47,  60 

of  Tertiary  Era 123    I 

Negro,  effect  of  American  climate  on 265 

population,  distribution  of 281 

rate  of  increase 279 

New  England  section  of  North  America 223 

New  York  district 229 

North  America,  comparative  relations  to  Europe  and  Asia      ....  176 

comparison  of  form  with  that  of  Europe 9 


k 


INDEX.  289 

PAGK 

North  America,  conditions  of  discovery  and  settlement      .....  188 

description  of  districts 168 

effect  of  geography  on  savage  tribes 180 

general  description     ....          ......  216 

geographical  relations  to  Old  World          174 

origin  of  ancient  peoples 178 

relation  of  geography  to  human  culture 168 

social  condition  of  Indians 172 

Occupations,  effect  on  society 215 

Ocean  currents,  effect  of  continents  on 129 

substances  held  in  solution  by 37 

Ohio  district 241 

Oregon  district 262 

Plants,  migrations  after  Glacial  Period 128 

Plateau  district 251 

Polar  regions,  conditions  of  life  in 30 

Population,  American,  changes  in  .     .     .          264 

evidence  from  Civil  War 268,  273 

longevity,  etc 266 

physical  condition 271 

European  in  America,  modifications  of  condition  ....  264 

Negro,  distribution  of  ...          .          281 

rate  of  increase 279 

Prairies,  effect  on  commercial  development 211 

origin 184,  186 

Proportion  of  shore  line  in  the  several  continents 10 

Pythagoras,  view  of  fossils 1 

Races  of  men,  permanences 165 

Relation  of  life  to  form  of  continent 13 

North  American  and  European  life 5 

Rivers  of  North  America,  evidence  as  to  continental  movement  ...  95 

St.  Lawrence  district,  general  character  of 224 

valley,  value  to  French 196 

Salt  deposits,  evidence  concerning  climate  from 136 

Slavery,  effect  of  Appalachian  Mountains  on  distribution 209 

Slave  trade,  effect  on  American  history 204 

Spaniards,  their  share  of  North  America 190 

Sympathy,  modern  development  of 150 

Temperature  of  the  earth's  surface,  determining  conditions     ....  138 

Tertiary  Era,  llfp  of 123 


290  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Tertiary  shore  line  of  Xew  England 88 

Trias  shore  line  of  New  England 86 

Tropics,  relation  of  conditions  ta  life 145 

Virgmia  district 230 

Volcanoes,  effect  on  ocean  sediments .     .     ,     ,  30 

evidence  concerning  movements  of  subterranean  rocks  .     .  02 

West  India  islands,  comparison  of  life  with  that  of  East  Indies  .     .     .  100 

evidence  of  recent  elevation 99 


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